DEATH OF THE REV. DR. CROKE, AT THE BISHOPRIC OF CLOYNE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume X, Issue 3614, 11 June 1873, Page 3

DEATH OF THE REV. DR. CROKE, AT THE BISHOPRIC OF CLOYNE.

Tnß following appeared in the Cork Examiner respecting the lute Dr. Croke :—" It is our imiufui duty to announce to-day the death of Very Rev. Dr. Croke, parish priest of Charleville, and Vicar General of the Dioewo of Cloync. His health, which was never the best, had of late years been extremely precarious ; and he quietly succumbed on Saturday, the 22nd, to a severe attack of bronehili« —a disease which had already proved futal to more than ono member of his family. For u period of more than Bixty years Dr. Croke has been prominent a 8 an ecclesiastic in this country. He was advanced to the honor of the priaathood in the yew ISII ; and hiving successively served as curate in Fermoy and .Administrator in Core or Quceiiiitoiv/i, he was appointed parish priest of Churlevillo by Dr. Coppinger in July, 1527- lie lived to a rare old age, having completed his 90th year ; and of his long, useful, and edifying career ho spoilt forty-six years ami more as parish priest of Charleville. Few, if any, of his college contemporaries survive him ; and few then reisain to tell of his first missionary doings, or of tho estimate that wr.s formed ot liim in his earlier years, whether a* minister of the Gospel or as a gentleman. But his brethren of latter timed, and his bishop, and a wide circle o( lay friends, and, above all, his parishioners, hud learned to associate his name and character with everything that was pure and priestly ill the Church, as well as upright and honourable ill society, His charity was notorious. He founded a Convent of Mercy and a Christian Brothers' establishment, and left all he had on earth for religious uses. He «as, in short, a re i'dy representative man, u grand old prh'st. I and a thorough gentleman. kven in his physique he was strikingly distiogui-hed, his presence imposing, his figure erect., his step stately, his dress faultless, his demeanour dignified, and in fact, a* well us in seeming, be was one of the most respectable ecclesiastics in any Church or country. Dr. Crok.i was uncle to the Most Kev. Dr. Thomas Croke, Bishop of Auckland ; also to tho Very Kev. James Croke, Vicar-General of the Archdiocese of Sau Francisco. Those are not., however, the only members of tho family vowed to the service of God. There uro also Mother Miry Joseph Croke, Superioress of the Convent" of Mercy, Charleville, County Cori;, and Mother Mary Ignatius Croke, Superioress ot t.hc C*mvout of Mercy, B*thurst, Xevt South Wales, Australia, who are nieces of the deceased, and sisters of Dr. Croke, of Auckland."