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THE GLORIES OF MARY IN BOSTON
(1871-1921) excerpts from these books written by John F. Byrne, C.Ss.R. The
Purple Dawn
MOTHER'S DAY. "Mother Dearest, Mother Fairest; Help of All Who Call on Thee."Pentecost Sunday, May 28, 1871, witnessed an event which may be justly considered the greatest landmark in this history of the Church (the old church)- the solemn enthronement above the main altar of the picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. It was " Mother's Day " in the heavenly sense of that beautiful term, and an ideal day for a grand ceremony in honor of the Great Mother. Above, smiled a clear blue sky without shadow or suggestion of cloud; the soft atmosphere was filled with the fragrance of a thousand fair and delicate flowers; in thicket and grove., the birds of the air, Nature's Sistine Choir, were singing Nature's "Ave Maria" to the Virgin Most Renowned, while far away to the east, on the golden sands of Nantasket Beach, the sparkling wavelets were murmuring "Hail Star of the Sea" Long before the hour set for the sacred function, a large crowd of people, some of whom had come a great distance, lined Tremont Street and Bumstead Lane. Promptly at half past nine, the procession, "a thing of beauty and a joy forever," began to move from the rectory to the church. First, came a number of young men wearing green sashes; secondly, four venerable old men, who formed an escort of honor to the picture; thirdly, four girls dressed in white frocks with blue sashes, who carried the Sacred Image under a canopy held aloft by four other girls similarly attired; fourthly, the members of the choir, preceded by the band; fifthly and finally, the officers of the rite: Father Wissel, celebrant, Father Enright, deacon, and Father O'Connor, subdeacon. During the procession the choir sang the Litany of Our Blessed Lady, and the whole countryside rang with her praises. In clear pure tones her glorious titles rose heavenward like fragrant incense, then, as if by marvelous transformation, they fell like delicious manna on the devout multitude. Some of the spectators actually wept for joy... After the procession the picture was blessed by Father Wissel and raised to its place of honor by Father Enright. Then down from the organ-loft and up to the rafters and all round the church, floated the exultant strains of the Magnificat, till those who listened were enthralled and felt as if Heaven had been let down upon earth, as if the fell and foul fiends of darkness had been driven headlong to their fiery prison by the mighty power of Her who crushed the head of the infernal serpent. Solemn Mass followed, at which Father Wissel preached. He was eloquent; not, perhaps, in the academic or technical sense, not, perhaps, with the eloquence of the schools; but in the larger and higher sense, with the eloquence of a man whose soul is on fire with his subject. He was perfect master of his theme; or rather, his theme was perfect master of him. It thrilled his heart; it leaped from his eye; it transfigured his whole countenance. For three quarters of an hour, he spoke on "The Nature and Efficacy of Devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help," with an unction worthy of a St. Alphonsus. What the effect of his sermon was, we can easily imagine, for "heart speaks to heart." His auditors were filled and fired with an intense love of Her who on the crimson heights of Calvary became the Mother of all Christians. Of this historic event the official records of the Community say: "The great numbers, some from a long distance, that lined the street through which the procession passed, the splendid music, and the perfect decorum that prevailed will render it a day celebrated in the Catholic annals of Boston." As we contemplate this great triumph of Our Blessed Mother in the light of the subsequent history of the Mission Church, the inspired words of Ozias, the prince of the people of Israel, to Judith, come naturally to our lips: "He (the Most High God) hath so magnified thy name this day that thy praise shall not depart out of the mouth of men." This magnificent function marked the formal opening of a Grand Triduum in honor of the Mother of Perpetual Help. The three following days there was Solemn Mass at 8 A. M., and at 7:30 P. M., sermon, with appropriate prayers and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. The Triduum was so well attended that many had to wait for hours and hours before their turn for confession came. Through the gracious mercy of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, souls innumerable were led to the feet of Him who came to heal the contrite of heart. The reign of wonderful bodily cures also, wrought through her intercession, then began and has continued ever since. Elsewhere we shall describe these prodigies. At the close of the Triduum there was an elaborate May procession, which was one of the golden glories of the early history. The people had been keyed up by the events of the three preceding days to a sublime pitch of devotion to the Holy Mother of God. She was the Queen of all hearts, and her fervent lovers turned out en masse to serenade Her. The appearance of her statue, which radiated an air of chaste beauty, was the signal for an outpouring of romantic love. The scene in and around the church on that balmy afternoon in May beggars and baffles description. Fully to grasp and correctly to interpret the spirit that ruled the crowd, would require the imagination of a Dante Aleghieri and the heart of Bernard of Clairvaux. Innocent little boys and girls, sturdy youths and gentle maidens, stalwart men and matronly women--all were stirred and swayed and swept heavenward by the overpowering impulse of a burning love of Her who is the "Mother of Fair Love." The boundless devotion to our Blessed Lady shown on that occasion was like that manifested by the early Christians of Ephesus, when the prelates assembled there in 431, solemnly proclaimed, against the impious heretic Nestorius, that Mary is the Mother of God. The wonderful results of the Triduum served as a powerful incentive and a keen spur to the Fathers to prosecute with tireless energy the noble work of proclaiming "The Glories of Mary in Boston." pp. 55-58 "Who is she that hath gone
forth like the sun, and as beautiful as Jerusalem?" THE DEDICATION OF THE NEW CHURCH On Passion Sunday, April 7, 1878, in the presence of several thousand
people, the magnificent new Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help was
solemnly dedicated by the To left: Archbishop Williams, who dedicated the new Mission Church in 1878 In the congregation were many prominent citizens, among whom was His Excellency Governor Rice. The sermon was preached by the Rev. James Fitton, of East Boston, the oldest priest in the diocese, who the previous December had celebrated the Golden Jubilee of his ordination. Referring to the marvelous growth of Catholicity in Boston within his own time and to the manv beautiful edifices recently erected in evidence of that growth, Father Fitton said: "Another grand monument of Catholicity in Boston, the Cradle of Liberty! What an interesting page of ecclesiastical history remains to be written of this Archdiocese, aye, and of New England! What extraordinary revolution does time effect! "How short the time is since a Catholic priest, in those days termed a 'popish' priest, would scarcely have dared to raise his voice in this colony of Massachusetts. Seventy-five years ago, the first Catholic Church was erected in Boston, and was dedicated by Bishop Carroll of Baltimore, there being then only two priests in Boston, Fathers Matignon and Cheverus. Twenty-five years subsequently, under the administration of the saintly Bishop Fenwick, Saint Mary's and Saint Patrick's Churches were erected. Look around now! In the place of one small church of seventy-five years ago, then ample, now we have our monumental Cathedral, St. Mary's, Endicott St., the Immaculate Conception, St, James's, St. Stephen's, St. Patrick's, Holy Trinity, SS. Peter and Paul's, St. Augustine's, Gate of Heaven, St. Vincent's, St. Joseph's, St. Francis de Sales', Most Holy Redeemer, the Assumption, Sacred Heart, Star of the Sea, St. John Baptist's, St. Leonard's, St. Peter's, and the magnificent edifice, a gem of architecture, and a masterpiece of mechanism, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the church this day dedicated to the holy service of Catholicity - and, without enumerating chapels, all erected within the past half of a century." After mentioning the various institutions established by the Catholics of Boston within the same period, the reverend preacher continued: "Within a stone's throw of where I now stand, there was in the days of my boyhood, one of those red-painted school houses, in which I learned my first lesson from Lindley Murray's grammar. On the spot on which I now stand, or near it, Washington proclaimed liberty to every son of Ireland, of France, or any other land--a happiness which we now enjoy." After drawing a bright picture of the future of Catholicism in Boston, he concluded his discourse by emphasizing in eloquent language the essential grandeur of a Catholic Church as the Tabernacle of God Himself. Under the direction of Mr. Joseph Kohler, the choir sang Volger's Mass, with the Misses M. A. Murphy and T. McAuley as sopranos; Miss Mary Callaghan, alto; Joseph W. Byrne, tenor; Abraham T. Rogers, bass; assisted by a chorus of twenty-five voices and sustained by the organ, at which Miss Nellie McGowan presided. At the evening exercises, the Rev. Robert Fulton, S. J., preached. The music was plain Gregorian chant sung by a chorus of sixty boys and girls. pp. 97-100 from The Redemptorist Centenaries The Boston American March 2S, 1909, said in part: "The Roxbury Mission Church is famous throughout the United States, not only for the impressiveness of its services and the beauty of its architecture and the eloquence and missionary zeal of the priests who comprise its community, but for the marvelously complete solution of sociological problems that for more than a quarter of a century has been worked out successfully beneath the shadow of its walls. Neither Lyman Abbot nor Felix Adler nor Dr. Irvine nor any others of the prominent students of sociology can afford to close their book of human observation and think they have read the last word on their science in America, unless they have paid a visit to the great institutions on Mission Hill. Given in a single sentence, a congregation of 10,000 people is cared for and guided in all its interests of life, temporal as well as spiritual, from earliest youth to old age and the earthly end. Every stage of existence, every condition of life, has its special ministration, until there has grown up about the Mission Church one of the most faithful and appreciative populations in all the world... On this spot there now stands one of the greatest
Catholic establishments in the United States. Besides the splendid
church, there is the convent and school of the Sisters of Notre Dame,
two spacious clubhouses for boys and girls, a commodious community house
for the Order, a hall and theatre, where entertainments are held
regularly throughout the winter months; a gymnasium with fine bathing Bowling Alley and Pool Room Not the least interesting feature about this fascinating church settlement is that within its own confines the community finds its own light and water supply. An artesian well, going down 400 feet, yields fifty gallons of sparkling water per minute. The needs of the various institutions are daily supplied from this well. The surplus supply is stored in a large reservoir at the top of one of the main buildings, ready for fire use or other emergencies. The electric power for the grand organ in the church, whose silver chimes at the vesper service can never be forgotten by those who once hear them, and current for the 3,000 or more electric lights used in the church and the surrounding buildings, is generated in an independent power plant. Beside this powerhouse is an underground coal pocket with a capacity of 500 tons of coal. This coal pocket is connected by a tunnel with every building in the group. . . All these are but the merest outlining features of the church and its auxiliary institutions on Roxbury Hill. It is a wonderful development, born of hard toil and continued through supreme sacrifice. But the results are magnificent and cannot but be filled with rich compensation for those who have dedicated their lives to the work." pp.341-2 In March, 1901, the New York Herald published the following lengthy article on the Shrine: "Within the last few weeks Roxbury, a suburb of Boston, has become famous as an American Shrine. As pilgrims of all creeds, nationalities and conditions throng to the renowned shrines abroad, where miraculous cures are effected upon persons suffering from diseases pronounced incurable by medical science and surgery, so they are coming now to this place - the maimed, the blind, the deformed, those afflicted with every known form of serious ills that afflict mankind and that defy the most advanced modern methods of remedy.
"The rich and poor throng here together at this
little altar of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, their prayers mingling and
their tear-wet eyes raised to the Shrine, before which five lights burn,
stars of hope to these poor, pain-racked, stricken ones that with bent
limbs, and many with sightless eyes and piteously deformed bodies, kneel
in the silence of the great church that has been built around the
Shrine, from which, during the last quarter of a century hundreds of
so-called incurables have gone forth, their trembling limbs set firmly
upon the ground for the first time in years, their staffs and crutches,
sometimes life-companions, thrown aside, their hands clasped in an
ecstasy of gladness and their faces radiant with a wonderful light-the
same that comes over the face of a mother when she feels the kiss of a
new-born child, the light of life life that we know not of, but
knowledge of which we grope for, like lbsen's blind men in the forest,
trying with feeble, world-stained hands to make a way through tangled
creeds and fads and sciences and cults that nowadays we call religion. "The scene witnessed this afternoon in the Mission Church of the Redemptorist Fathers recalled 'vividly the chapters which Zola - wrote a few years ago of the pilgrimage to Lourdes. Here were to be seen all classes and conditions bound by the universal tie of suffering. The rich were borne from carriages by servants, attended by loving relatives and friends. There were also the poor, some of them old, bent, worn with years of infirmity. They hobbled after their brothers so much wealthier in the world's goods, but poor in the possession of God's greatest gift to man. "There were little children too, the saddest of them all, their young eyes dim with pain that many of them have known since birth; with none of the brightness or joy of childhood in their faces, but with little bodies and limbs encased in cumbersome metal frames, or heads masked in horrible helmets of steel. "They were the bravest of the invalids--these youthful martyrs. For while their faces were pinched and worn and thin and serious with the awe of the church and their mission at the altar, still they did not weep or pray or cry aloud, as did their elders. They sat or knelt with folded hands, looking at the Shrine, with prayers in their sad eyes, or else leaned in the arms of mothers, to whom these maimed and stricken little ones are always dearer than are their stronger brothers. "There were babies borne in their parents' arms to the foot of the altar to be held before the Shrine; and women whose beauty had faded into white masks, their rich garments and furs covering lameness and helplessness. There were men once filled with the ambition and glory of life and its accomplishment, their faces weakened now with pain and bearing all the traces of a fight with death-a fight in which they have been almost conquered, and now come as to a last tribunal, many of them hoping without understanding, and many with faith dead within them after years of result less treatment from specialists the world over. Waiting for the Blessing. "The transition from a world of healthful, living people, a city full of jostling, battling human beings with all their strivings, their failings, their virtues and their sins, to this church, where all the usual ambitions of existence have turned into the still channel of illness, is a change that is strong in the contrast. "It is little wonder that from the sky or beyond it, or from wherever we may hope for the blessings of mercy and charity, an answer comes to this mighty prayer of boundless human misery. It is a demand that needs no words. The Redemptorist priest who looks over the congregation on this afternoon of every week said nothing to the stricken ones of their ills or their hopes for health. He gave the blessing of the Church, and knelt in prayer with the suffering ones, who wept and prayed and called aloud for help in their affliction. "This is the only service. There is no singing, nor organ music, nor incense, nor any of the beautiful Latin prayers or litanies of the Church. It is all cold and gray as a monument of grief. The shafts of sunlight that break through the stained-glass panes in streams of purple and rose and gold cause the children's eyes to brighten, but they only bring heavier sighs to the lips of the older martyrs, who see no rainbow of God's promise in the magic ray. "The prayer over, there is a rattle of crutches on the marble floor, sad as the sound of earth falling into a grave. The throng departs, the beds are carried out, the blind led away, and the feeble assisted through the church door. Many remain to pray with heads bowed, and some with rosaries between their fingers. Others are there to return thanks for the restored health of relatives or for their own. "One little boy I saw, who, in leaving the pew, his cap in his hand, walked around in front of the shrine altar, looking with a strangely solemn gaze at one of the high stands upon which hang all the discarded surgical appliances that have been cast off at the foot of this wonderful altar. "The boy was not one of the cripples. His body was sturdy and strong, although his face was older than his years. He leaned over to the stand where hung a metal frame, such as is used for child patients suffering from spinal disease. "He looked at it with wondering, childish interest and gravity. Then, observing my attention, he pointed it out with a certain pride. 'That's mine,' he whispered. 'I was cured last year. I come and look at it every once in a while.' "These cures have been occurring at the Mission Church for the last twenty years. "They are of such constant occurrence here in Roxbury, that only the marvelous ones-those of cancer, of consumption, of seemingly helpless deformity--attract attention. One old man, who keeps a shop in the vicinity of the church, said: 'I have lived here for twenty years, and have seen an endless stream of people who passed this door on crutches, lame and suffering from various sicknesses. I have seen and talked with them afterwards when they were strong, well and deeply affected by the marvels that had been worked within them.' "Numbers of people come from distant cities to Roxbury to visit the Shrine and offer the novena, or nine days' prayer, which is the form of petition for recovery from disease. "Some of the cures are effected almost immediately with all the evidences of miraculous intervention; others are reached with longer and more prayerful effort. Many still toil to the church who have been going there for years unhelped. "The Shrine has come into popular notice recently through some wonderful cures that have been effected at a distance of many miles through prayers offered in thought at the Shrine, although the patient has been miles across the continent, unable through lack of means or dangerous condition to visit the Shrine in person. "Each day the mail brings letters to the Mission Church House with accounts of these miracles which are remarkable in view of the fact that a pilgrimage to a Shrine has always been part of the form of prayer for cure in other countries. "Prominent persons outside of the Church have been cured through the novenas of Catholic friends offered in behalf of the patients without their knowledge. A Cincinnati physician, who was about to undergo a dangerous operation for eye cancer, was one of the most recent cases that gained great publicity. A novena offered at the Shrine in thought, as a last resort before submitting to the surgeon's knife, effected a marvelous cure, the cancer disappearing before the nine days' prayer was ended, to the amazement of the physician and his brother practitioners. "These letters, as they arrive, are recorded with names and addresses and details in a book of record, which is open for inspection at the Mission House. A recital of them would fill many Herald pages with details of loathsome and painful diseases. "Scoffers are apt to ridicule all cures that come through faith, whether by the modern sciences of health that have religious belief as a foundation, or those at shrines. They quote what they know when they make light of the miraculous. "But those who have been through the valley of death to life, and cast off the manacles of steel and iron to stand with tear-filled eyes and bounding hearts before an altar as though risen from the dead like Lazarus, these laugh at what they know, for they have learned that to feel is greater than it is to know. "Through the books of the recorded cures at the Mission Church, from which I copied hundreds of names and addresses, and from the many homes in Roxbury, where cures have been effected upon the members of the families, I learned beyond all doubt that wonders are effected at the Shrine. "These cures do not consist of the usual nervous diseases that come so easily within the power of faith curists, scientists and hypnotists. They are cases that have for years defied the specialists of Boston and its vicinity and have been pronounced incurable, not by one doctor, but by five or six, who in consultation in hospital wards and elsewhere have pronounced the doom of men and women, now strong and well through the prayers at the Shrine. "I saw one of the Redemptorist Fathers at the Mission Church House and he told me of the marvelous cures that have happened at the church. "'They have been happening constantly for the last twenty-five years,' he said: 'but we are very much averse to any publicity beyond that which must occur through the cure of invalids who have been pronounced beyond the aid of medical skill. "'So few people understand the attitude of the Church in these matters, and so many woefully misrepresent it, that we feel that better results can be produced without the notice of people who are ignorant of the facts. "'A Shrine, to many such persons, is a place at which Catholics adore statues and pictures, and, of course, we are accused of idolatry. A Shrine is a symbol reverenced and loved just as the American Flag is, because it is the symbol of the nation. The flag materially considered, means nothing, but it is the idea of the flag that makes men willing to die for their country. " "The novenas that are offered at the Shrine ask the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, whom the Church honors next to Our Savior. They consist of nine days of prayer with faith and the reception of the Sacraments. The record of cures here is great, but we never speak of cures or illness to the people who come here for relief. 'The cures that have occurred at a distance from the Shrine have also been of constant happening. . . The efficacy of the intercession of the Blessed Virgin here finds its greatest proof. The first miracle that Jesus performed was done at the request of Mary, as is recorded in the second chapter of St. John."'
pp 312-316
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Most
Rev. Archbishop Williams. Promptly at ten o'clock the procession,
composed of the altar--and the choir-boys, the attendant clergy, and the
Most Rev. Archbishop, began to move round the church. After the
sprinkling of the walls and the singing of the prescribed psalms, His
Grace celebrated Pontifical Mass. The assistant priest was the Rev. John
Barry of Concord, N. H., Vicar General of the diocese of Portland; the
deacons of honor were the Rev. W. A. Blenkinsop of Saints Peter and
Paul's Church, S. Boston, and the Rev. T. R. Shahan of the St. James's
Church; the deacon of the Mass, the Rev. James E. O'Brien of St. Peter's
Church, Cambridge; the subdeacon, the Rev. L. J. Morris of Brookline;
the master of ceremonies, the Rev. Theodore A. Metcalf, Chancellor of
the Archdiocese. (There were numerous clergy from the Redemptorists,
the Archdiocese, and other Orders in attendance).
accommodations for boys and another for girls, an extensive printing and
publishing plant, enclosed recreation grounds, a bandroom for one of the
finest bands in the country and two junior bands, pool rooms, a large
billiard hall, a well-stocked library whose shelves are freely used by
hundreds of young readers every evening of the year, the whole
constituting an equipment fit for a university. 
