1889-03-01

              ----& PUBLISHED   MONTHLY, £-:-

hi II.

St. John's University, Collcgevitlc; Minn., March, 1889.

Number

SPRING'S  ADVENT.

SNOW bouutl, iue bouud! Cheerless monotone Hor'nog. o'er the jy.mil n 1 Of portherp z >m).

Cheerless, dreary ftli —

Winter FeigiM supreme   --Iry shroud, a pall

Of tleath serene.

fib touch of Spnytj -L;ff! To ice find frost, D«afcb! O Winter Kra<',

Thy power is lost.

,0-mie then, spee.il wel!,

Spring, with rniiil Iihm i s.v,iy; (Join* to break the spell Of Winter Jny.

Com >

 quicken

At thy sweet hrentlr's heckm) New :iifw, 0 SpririK.!

Mellow •howecs,

Warm aud ir€lco:ue rain Folldw, soafcteHnjj

¦ In thy traiu;

Met**, with ! o'Hite *"-y* ii m 1, Life ;iinl j >y :t:iii ylnJueSfl O'er the jjiu'il.

THE FIRST BEGINNING OF ST. JOHN'S ABBEY.

ii.

noqx aft T oui" arrival in Minnesota the O zeal ous bjsliop Cretin summoned Rev. P. VVeningor to hold mia^ioiiH in his diocese. This missionary wns particularly. qualified for fcliip undertaking. 01? account of his a .M.fuainta,nee with the German, English and French language- Towards the end ol! June, 1
I people of St. Joseph also made application for a mission; their application was favorably heard only after they had begged of bhe bishop to allow the Bene-dictinea to come to them. ()w occasion of this mission the deluded agitators learnt that after all the monks were not as dangerous as they imagined, that they suffered every ono bo have his own, nay more, did what they still do, i. e. assist others, to acquire a settled home. A three days mission at St. Augusta followed upon that of St. ('loud; Father Cornelius assisted. Mission crosses were also erected. Upon the removal of all obstacles fclia mission was opened at St. Joseph., whi'-h t\w\ had a log church with residence for the pastor, where Rev. Pierz had at an earlier date several times held services. This missionary had also taken a claim of 160 acres of prairie and 80 ¦ ;icres ox timber for the benefit of the rhmvh. The latter claim was however lost by the action of lay men who accomplished what had before been ascribed to ttie monks.

Rev! Pierz had also clahnedlGO acres for the church at St. James and in the opinion of men of that day had invested heavily to secure the claim. —howevi r with a result as discouraging' as the one just Recorded, — the claim was "jumped" aud deemed first-rate booty. Th&mission conducted at St. Joseph was highly sin -eessful nivl there was abundant work for Father Weninger and P. Bruno in the confessional. Three days weret then devoted to missionary service at St. James and three days to Richmond.

At Richmond a log church was hastily constructed and put" under roof. This chapel was so small that there was not room for two confessionals. As there were moreover some penitents hard of hearing, one of the confessionals was placed outside the chapel and P. Bruno heard confessions in the open air.

The pesky mosquitoes were very solicitous lest anyone should be overcome by drowsiness. At St. James the two priest* took lodgings frith Mr. Brixius, one of whose sons later on entered the Benedictine Order and died as Br. Placid us. At Richmond they lodged with Mr! Baum-ler. Father Weninger who wns either not accustomed   to  mosquitoew  or  \va«

l\

a favorite with them, was so disfigured by thsir bites as to be well nigh unrecognizable.

The .Mission at Richmond was concluded on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. On the Eve of the feast a message from Prior Demetrius, by lighting express—ox-team—summoned P. Bruno to depart instantly for St. Joseph where he was thence forth to be pastor with St. James and Richmond for stations, while the Prior was to take charge of St. Cloud, Rev. Cornelius of Sank Rapids and St. Augusta.

The 15th of August, on which day P. Weninger preached a sermon in St. Joseph, was the beginning of a two yearn after-mission sent by Divine Providence; During the discourse of the missionary a heavy darkness suddenly set in, accompanied, as we thought, by a tremendous hail-storm, the clatter of which drowned the voice of the preacher. But it was something worse than hail*stones, for when we left the church our eyes beheld nothing but greedy grasshoppers, which had darkened the sun and in their descent had struck bo heavily upon the roof of the chapel.

This small, voracious, yet invincible monster had in a short time devastated all that grows and blooms upon the face of the earth. Within about '2 or 3 days the fields presented the appearance of having been newly plowed. Then an indescribable misery entered the homes of the poor settlers of Stearns County, The entire harvest was a dead loss for those settlers who had taken their abodes in this region during the previous year; those, of course, who had settled during the year of the famine had no crop to lose, an they had not planted any^

The first terrible winter was at hand. The few victuals that remained were soon consumed, prices rose enormously, because the nearest market was St. Paul, and it required a full week to make a/trip with an ox-team. Still hope did not die. What would man be without hope? Spring came; seed wheat stood at $2 per bushel, but it was bought and sowed. But the new brood of grass-hoppers suffered nothing to grow, except peas. Everything else became their prey. They found their way into the lionises and