Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 17.djvu/48

 ALTOOKA 32 AHABEUS

the Ursiiline Sisters, Sisters of Cliarity of St. Vin- In 1908 the diocesan community of Franciscan

cent de Paul, Sisters of the Precious Blood, Hos- Brothers at Loretto, Pa., were admitted to solemn

pital Sisters of St. Francis, Sisters of the Holy profession in the Third Order Regular of St.

Cross, Sisters of Misericorde of Montreal, School P'rancis, and in 1910 their institute at Loretto was

Sisters of Notre Dame, Sisters of the Poor of St. made the provincial house for the newly erected

Francis and Sisters, Poor Handmaids of Jesus province of the Sacred Heart.

Christ. During the World War, although limited in

By 1921 statistics this diocese comprises a Catho- priests, the diocese sent six chaplains to the army,

lie population of 87,000; 170 secular and 38 regular each of whom made an excellent record. Each

clergy, 119 parishes, 42 missions with churches, 20 parish sent its quota of yoimg men into the ranks

chapels, 21 ecclesiastical students, 1 seminary with and there is hardly a congregation that did not

105 students, 2 colleges and academies for boys with lose one or more, killed in the war. Priests and

219 students, 5 academies for young ladies, 67 paro- prominent laymen made stirring addresses, urging

chial schools with 10,465 pupils, 2 orphan asylums their hearers to subscribe for Liberty Bonds and

with 288 orphans, 12,360 young people under Catho- take their full share in the burdens the war im-

lic care, 11 hospitals, and 3 homes for the aged. posed. The laity, both men and women, and even

Altoona, Diocese of (Altunenbis; cf. C. £., the children in the schools, did splendid service. I-368b). — ^Bishop Eugene A. Garvey, the first bishop

of Altoona, consecrated 8 September, 1901, died Amadeus of the Heart of Jesus, Mother

22 October, 1920. He organized the diocese, his Mary (Sarah Theresa Dunne), foundress of

special attention being devoted to Christian educa- the Ursuhne Missions in Montana and Alaska,

tion and the care of the orphans of the diocese, b. at Akron, Ohio, 2 July, 1846; d. at Seattle, 10

He built orphanages at Cresson, Pa., for boys and November, 1920. She was descended from the

for girls. He won the esteem of non-<^atholic and CDunne's of Iregan, Ireland; her father John

Catholic alike, and rendered valuable service to the O'Dunne, sailed for America in 1820, having bought

country during the war. a tract of land in upper Canada upon which he

He was succeeded by Bishop John Joseph Mc- intended to found a Catholic colony from Ireland.

Cort, a native of Philadelphia, who was conse- Finding too much opposition from Orangemen he

crated auxiliary to the Archbishop of Philadelphia sold out in 1836 and moved to the United States,

17 September, 1912. He was appointed coadjutor where he settled in the Western Reserve, Ohio,

with the right of succession to the Bishop of Al- When Sarah was ten years old he moved to Cali-

toona 27 January, 1920, and succeeded him in the fomia, leavixig her and her sister Mary at school

see 22 October of the same year. Bishop McCort in the Ursuline Convent at Cleveland. Here her

had in view two great objects : the building of a character was moulded to heroism and she acquired

cathedral worthv of the growing diocese and pro- that fearlessness in undertaking great things for

vision for the higher education of the ^outh of God that distinguished her in alter life. After

the diocese, both of which aims were received with graduation she entered the novitiate of the order

generous approval by priests and laity and are at at Toledo, where she pronounced her vows, 23

present well under way. A site for the cathedral August, 1864. Upon the death of the foundress,

nas been secured and two central Catholic high in 1874, she was elected superior and unanimously

schools will open in September, 1922. The bishop re-elected. Her term of office was a period of

has also taken a firm stand on primary education, flourishing growth for the Ursulines; in 1876 she

directing that where it is possible every parish shall built a new novitiate; in 1878 she restored the

be provided with a Catholic school. enclosure prescribed in 1607 for the Ursulines of

The total population of the city of Altoona was Pans; and in 1879 she re-established the convent

given at 60,331 in 1920. The Catholic population at Youngstown.

of the diocese (1921) is 135,241. There are 103 In 1883 there was an urgent call for missionary parishes, 131 churches, 35 missions, 12 stations; 3 and educational work among the Indian tribes in monasteries for men; secular priests 116, regulars the far West. Bishop Brondel, then Vicar Apostolic 44; 128 Sisters; 1 seminary with 55 seminarians; 1 of Montana, appealed to the bishops in the East college for men with 15 teachers and an attendance for aid and especially for sisters to establish schools of 160; 9 high schools with 28 teachers and an among the Indians. Bishop Gilmour of Cleveland attendance of 307 (160 boys, 147 girls); 1 academy responded by sending him six Ursulines, with for girls (Mount St. Aloysius at Cresson conducted Mother Amadeus at their head, saying ''I am send- by the Sisters of Mercy) with 17 teachers and an ing you a Christmas present of six Ursulines with attendance of 160; 1 training school; 46 parochial the Flower of my Flock at their head." They left schools with 256 teachers and an attendance of Toledo in January, 1884, arriving 17 days later at 12,710; 1 home for working girls (the Casa Regina Miles City, Montana, where Mother Amadeus Sodality Home at Altoona, conducted by Sisters of founded her first house in the West. A few months the Immaculate Heart of Mary), 3 asylums (St. later with two of her nuns she went to a mission Joseph's Infant Home at Ebensburg, conducted by in the Tongue River Rcserv^ation, founded the Sisters of St. Joseph, St. John's Orpnan Asylum for previous year by Father Barcelo, S. J., among the boys and St. Mary's Home for girls, both conducted Cheycnnes. Thanking God for the privilege of at Summit by Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of their apostolate the Sisters bore the privations of Marv); 1 hospital (Mercy Hospital at Johnstown, their primitive surroundings and the outbursts of conducted by the Sisters of Mercy). The Pennsyl- vengeance of the absolutely untamed tribe, when vania State Sanitarium for Tuberculosis at Cresson even the priests succumbed and left the mission, has a Catholic chaplain and the various hoeh The personal magnetism and winning firmness of pitals admit the ministry of priests. The Priests the Mother won over the chiefs of the Cheyenne, Eucharistic League, the Young Men's Institute, the who never after wavered in their loyalty to her. Knights of Columbus, and the Knights of St. George She soon extended her work to other tribes, and are established in the diocese. The Catholic period- during her twenty-three years in Montana founded icals are the New Guide, published at Altoona, and twelve flourishing missions.

the Altoona Monthly, unaer the editorship of Rev. In 1900, at the request of Leo XIII, she attended

Morgan M. Sheedy, LL.D. the flrst chapter general of the Ursulines in Rome,