Bishop Buddy Scrapbook 1941-1945

for Christ, a kingdom for Christ, a domain for the Immaculate Queen of Heaven . . .. The years unfolded for Pere Marquette the sunshine and shadow of missionary routine. There were consolations: the ap- prenticeship under the saintly Druillettes at Three Rivers where he mastered six na- tive dialects; the status with the driving Dablon at Sault Ste. Marie before going on alone to the polyglot Indian village at bleak Saint Esprit. There was discouragement as well, but al:ways the vision of a Great River. Preparations for Expedition The seeds of Marquette's hope, watered by his daily prayers, burgeoned on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, 1672. Louis Joliet arrived at Mackinac Island where Marquette was caring for the Huron In- dians. He carried letters patent for himself from the new governor of Canada, Count de Frontenac, as well as the necessary per- missions for Marquette, authorizing them to seek the Great River to the West. Months of eager preparation followed, poring over conjectural maps, sifting stories related by passing savages, gathering equip- ment. "Indian corn," Marquette writes, "with some smoked meat, constituted all our provisions." Finally Pere Marquette, Joliet and five Frenchmen embarked, May 17, 1673, "in two bark canoes, fully resolved to do and suffer everything for so glorious an under- taking." Marquette had placed the expedi- tion under the patronage of "the Blessed Virgin Immaculate, promising her that. if she granted us the favor of discovering the Great River I would give it the name of the Conception."· After leaving bay des Puants (Green Bay), the expedition paddled up a small stream of many portages to Lake Winne- bago. The wild and turbulent Fox River was difficult but they pursued it to its head- waters, passing near the present Wisconsin city named after Marquette. Among the savages they met was a tribe which Marquette gallicly calls Polle Avoine (Wild Oats) . They entreated the party to turn back for the Great River "was full of horrible monsters, which devoured men and canoes together." On June 10, they were at Maskoutens, three leagues from a river discharging into the great one. The most difficult part of the outward trip followed, through shallow streams "so full of wild oats that it is dif- ficult to find the channel." Then a brush- tangled portage of 2700 paces. Leaving the waters flowing "to Quebec, 400 or 500 leagues from here," the explor- ers embarked on what is now the Wiscon- sin River after beginning "all together a new devotion of the Blessed Virgin Im- maculate, which we practiced daily." Marquette Blesses River The current carried them swiftly and "we safely entered the Mississippi on the

17th of June, with a joy that I cannot ex- press." After a prayer of thanksgiving, Marquette was mindful of his promise. Dipping his hand into the Great River and sweeping its vast expanse with his eyes, he raised his hand in benediction over it : "May you be forever Riviere de la Con- ception." Pere Marquette's journal now becomes copious: the customs and beliefs of the Illinois with whom they smoked the Calu- met; the vagaries of the mighty river; pre- cise descriptions of beaver, elk, "wild cat- tle" (Buffalo) with "a sort of large dewlap and on the back a rather large hump" ; partridges "exactly like those of France ex- cept that they have two ruffs." The Illinois begged Marquette to remain with them but he could only promise that he or some other Jesuit would return to them. He was no more than a John the Baptist, preparing a way for others to follow. Concluding that the "river discharges into the Florida or Mexican gulf, and not to the East in Virginia . . . . or to the West in California," Pere Marquette and Joliet turned back when they reached "latitude 33 degrees, 40 minutes." For us that would be the mouth of the Arkansas river, near Rosedale, Mississippi. Three days would have taken them to the gulf but, fearing capture by the Spaniards, they turned the bows of their canoes into the current, and, July 17, began the long and tortuous battle with the river. The return Journey was shorter. The Illinois and Desplaines rivers were followed and the party entered Lake Michigan by the Chicago river. They came, finally, to St. Francis Xaxier Mission on Green Bay late in September. Marquette's journal con- cludes humbly and typically: "had this voyage resulted in the salvation of even one soul, I would consider all my troubles well rewarded and I have reason to presume that such is the case." Marquette and Xavier And now Jacques Marquette's most con- stant prayer that "like dear St. Xavier he might die in the midst of the woods, bereft of everything" remains to be answered. He was not a robust man; ·his energies lay in his dynamic will, his tireless zeal, in the thrill of conquests for Christ. The voyage of discovery had sapped his reserves and when the tension was relaxed amid the re- lative security of the mission he suffered severely from hemorrhages. He set out, nevertheless, October 25, 1674, to return to the Illinois savages. His sufferings increased, however, as the cold set in and he was obliged to winter near the present site of Chicago. Although only 38, Pere Marquette realized that the sand in his glass was almost run. He made the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and pre- pared himself for death. A new eagerness grips him now. The ice had scarcely gone out of the rivers when

he pushed on to a rendezvous with the Il- linois. He said Mass for them on Holy Thursday and Easter Sunday, 1675, "the only sacrifices ever offered there to God," and gave to that mission the name of the Immaculate Conception. His work was now finished; he made his farewells quickly; and his two companions bent to the paddles with Marquette stretch- ed out in the waist of the canoe. He would go to Mackinac and there say his nunc dimittis. But it was not to be. When they reached a point on Lake Michigan, near Ludington, Mich., the in- trepid soldier of Christ asked to be carried ashore. Here he would look out over water as Xavier did; this would be his Sancian. But a few grains of sand are left in the glass. He confessed his companions, bade them farewell. Then gazing beyond his crucifix, which was held for him, he "be- held an object which he regarded with ex- treme pleasure." ... The Immaculate Vir- gin had come for him, she was beckoning him home. Present Incomplete Burses Holy Souls Burse .. .............. .........$5381.30 Sacred Heart Burse ...................... 3697.00 Fr. Lawrence E. O'Keefe Burse.... 2669.00 Fr. Martin Maher Burse................ 2004.00 St. Joseph Burse ....... ..................... 1961.10 Fr. William Lonergan Burse.......... 1550.00 St. Robert Bellarrnine Burse.......... 765.00 Fr. William Boland Burse................ 379.50 St. Gemma Galgani Burse.... ............ 115.00 Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Burse.... 40.00 Victory Burse ........ ......... ................. 610.30 New Perpetual Members Perpetual Family J. B. and Mary Laurentine Falvey and Family Dr. and Mrs. Frederick G. Gillick and Family Mr. and Frs. Francis C. Diener and Family Mr. and Mrs. Patrick McBride and Family Mr. and Mrs. John J. Moholy and Family Perpetual Living Mrs. L. Reber Mrs. Mary Davies Mrs. Margaret Griffin Perpetual Deceased

Charles P. Bradley Vincent P. Devlin Edward Distel Mr. Cornelius Doherty Mrs. Cornelius Doherty John C. Gilbride David Lanctot Mary Lanigan Edward J. Lynch Christopher Peter Lynch George J. McCarthy Garret W. McEnerney Mrs. Augustine M. Renault Florance I. Sullivan Annie M. Work