FUNERAL OF THE RIGHT REV. MONSIGNOR COLEMAN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 40, 24 January 1890, Page 13

FUNERAL OF THE RIGHT REV. MONSIGNOR COLEMAN.

♦ Owing last week to some degree of confusion arising from tbe sudden ■hock of the sad event and the hurry in which we were obliged to write, some inaccuracies occurred in our obituary notice of the lata Bight Rev. Monsignor Coleman. The deceased prelate, for example, was in his sixtieth year, and not aged fifty-five or fifty-six aa we stated, lt was, however, characteristic of Father Coleman that even those who were familiar with him were ignorant of details personally concerning him. He spo'ie little of himself and in his intercourse with others was, for tbe most part.engaged, either with their particular affairs or matters of religious orj public interest. His death, again, was not so completely sudden as at the time we felt it to be. No reason, it is true, was seen for apprehension ia Dunedin, and, with the exception of a little unusual dulness, nothing out of the common was remarked in connection with him, until symptoms which matt have escaped anything but the most careful observation set in, when medical aid was at pnoe summoned. Bat previous to hit departure

from Oamaru the deceased prelate had been so unwell as to lead his friends there to remonstrate against bis leaving home. Many things are now, indeed, recalled which seem to show that he had himself had some presentiment of approaching death, and it is particularly noticeable that his frequently expressed desire to die in the close neighbourhood of his Bishop was fulfilled. Some six months ago we may add he had been detained by serious illness in Dunadin and under the skilful care of Dr. Fergusson, who was also with him at hit death, for several weeks. The body was brought to St. Joseph's Cathedral on Wednesday evening, and lay exposed before the high altar until next day. The church was visited during the evening by crowds of sorrowing people, the clergy of the mission and of the diocese generally, assembled in Dunedin for the Synod, as well as those present on a visit to the city from Wellington, at intervals reciting prayers and rosaries for the repose of the departed soul. Daring the night watch was maintained by the members of the Confraternity of the Holy Family. At 11 a.m. on Thursday a solemn ioffice for the dead and Pontifical High Maw of Requiem were commenced, the funeral having been postponed until 1 p.m. to enable friends of the deceased to attend from Oamaru. The Most Rev. Dr. Moran acted as celebrant, the Very Rev. Fathers Walsh, O'Leary, and Mackay, respectively as deacon, subdeacon, and assistant priest ; and the Rev. Fatter Newport as Master of ceremonies. Lessons were readjby the Rev, Fathers O'Neil (Milton) ; Eeenan, Vereker, Sheehan, O'Leary, Lane (Wellington) ; the Very Bey. Dr. Watters, S.M. Rector of St. Patrick's College ; the Very Rev. Father McNamara 8.M., V.G. Wellington ; and the Most Rev. Dr. Moran. There were also present the Rev. Fathers Lynch Adm., Devoy, S.M., Hunt, O'Donnell (2), Lynch, and O'Neill. The Rev. Father Burk« preached the funeral sermon as follows :— " Carefully study to present thyself approved unto God— a workman that needeth not to be ashamed," ii Tim., 3, 16. St. Paul draws out chiefly in his letters to Timothy and Titus the ideal— the type of the minister of the new Law. He ordains that he should be blameless, edifying in mamners, in speech, in faith, in charity. With his characteristic real he exhorts Timothy to "pursue justice, faith, charity." •• I charge thee, and that thou keep the commandment without spot, blameless, until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." And as prudent zeal is the outcome of living faith, active charity, and genuine virtue, and, as it should be the great trait of the Christian priest, he commands, " preach the word ; be instant in Esason, out of season ; reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine," and again to litus, " These things speak and exhort and rebuke, with all authority. Let no man despise thee." As Motes was commanded of old respecting the Tabernacle, "to look and make it according to the pattern that was shown (him) on the Mount," so the Church, the faithful inheritor of the Apostolic doctrine, looks back and fashions her ministers according to the pattern given by the Apostles. " Let the Bishop remind tne clergy that they should go before the faithful in life, in speech, in knowledge, mindful of what was written, • Be ye holy because lam holy.' " To this pre-eminence in sanctity her Fathere and Doctors constantly exhort ; to promote it her Councils legislate ; to ensure it her seminaries work, and to habituate candidates for the ministry to it a long and prayerful preparation is demanded. Now that we are gathered round the bier of one of the Church's ministers — one whom all revered and many loved with a deep personal love, we may, for our edification, and to satisfy our grief, pause for a moment and see how he realised in his life, conversation, and labours the Church's ideal of the Christian priest, and the care Bhe bestowed upon him in his preparation for her ministry. He who knows through long association the merits of the deceased prelate could most feelingly describe them for you, but the suddenness and greatness of the loss render him unable to speak to you to-day. Hence another is here to guide your reflections. The Right Rev. Monsignor Coleman was an enlightened, zaalous, and self-denying priest. He was an instant and pressing preacher and exhorter. His was a simple, strong, and living faith. His heart was kind and generous to all within and without his fold. He was emphatically " a workman that needeth not to be ashamed." Born in 1830 in the county Waterford and in the diocese of Cloyne, he received his ecclesiastical training at Maynooth. There he read a creditable philosophical and ecclesiastical course. His intelligence and tact secured for him, when ordained priest, a good position in the church of Cloyne. When he had laboured fifteen years in his native place, he, in 1870, sacrificed a career of distinction which lay before him, and, despite the earnest remonstrance of friends and the solicitation ' of his relatives, he threw in his lot with Dr. Moran, then recently appointed to the newly-erected, and, to them, unknown, and unformed diocese of Dunedin in far away New Zealand. The Bishop was fortunate in his sole volunteer priest, for Father Coleman was certainly fitted by nature and grace for the difficult work that lay before him. Of him, as of the successor of Heli, it might be said, •• I will raise up a faithful priest who will do according to mv heart and to my soul." Arrived here in a place where the Church was weak, scattered, and disorganised, both these men set to work, and Father Coleman was the eye, and the ear, and the strong right hand of the Bishop. He travelled through the province.over the mountains and gullies of Otago, wherever a few miners were encamped ; no railways then, few roads, few bridges, and roughest accommodation. He gathered in those who had not been to the Sacraments for years. He pressed with a firm and prudent hand the indifferent and disaffected; He organised the people into congregations ; he induced them to build churches ; he secured by his unaided effort for the Bishop his present residence, where by a strange coincidence he came to die. From these rides into the interior he often returned dustcovered, bedraggled, his clothes torn and himself worn -out. In 1874 he went to Europe to procure priests and nans, and succeeded in obtaining a dozen or so, most of whom still are with us. Since then he has been mostly engaged in ordinary pastoral work, instant in exhorting. in rebuking, in pressing, keeping back nothing profitable to his flock, catechising in his homely familiar way, promoting the Christian education of his people's children, and providing that in the|f uture, when he was gone, there should be the means for rearing them according to the Christian

ideal . For Monsignor Ooleman has devoted, wholly and unreservedly , everything in bis bonds to promote the religion and education of those for whom in life he laboured so unceasingly and with so much foresight. He might legitimately say with St. Paul, " But I most gladly will Bpend and be spent myself for your souls, although loving you more Ibe loved less." And you who knew his strength of will and fiery energy know that neither •• bonds nor afflictions " Bhould frighten him from consummating his "course and the ministry of the word." His *eal and his work were the effect of his deep and living' faith. He realised very vividly the unsaen. Hence that instinct of prayer which be showed in times of difficulty and danger, and which he practised on the day of his death, while moving m your streets and among the people with the hand of death just pressing upon him. Faith is the root and foundation of all solid Christian actions ; so it was the ground of his great loyalty to the Church, whose legislation, down to the minutest regulation of ritual, he scrupulously observed, and of that obedience to bis Bishop so prompt and cheerful, anticipating even the expression of the wishes of authority. Even the day before yesterday, when friends at Oamarn perceived a change in his health and advised him not to come to the Synod, be still thought it his duty to obey the Bishop's invitation, and he came, as we have seen, to die here, Strong as was his religious conviction it bad nothing narrow, or ungenerous in it. His kindness of disposition and generosity of S9n« timent, embraced all alike. His friendly greeting, his readiness to do a service to all men, his genial manner— making no distinction of race or religion, gained him that esteem;and those expressions of kindly sympathy which his death has called forth. Considering the great gap his absence will leave in this diocese and province, no wonder his unexpected and comparatively early death gives much sorrow to you around his bier and to many more throughout New Zealand— to the Bishop, who has lost a faithful Bupport and prudent administrator — to the circle of his rev. brethren, who have lort an experienced adviser and trusted friend— to his congregation, who have lost a faithful and provident father and pastor — to the community at large, who have lost a genial,large-hearted,patriotic citizen and colonist. But whilst we deplore his loss the Church which calls us here bids us reflect and pray. In the awful presence of death and sitting in the shadow of a death so sudden, we can well learn the great lesson " be you always ready, for at what time you think not the Son of Man i will come." We should remember that in many things we all offend — that the just fall seven times — if they have merits, they have also faults,that into heaven there shall not enter anything that is defiled— that there is an expiating prison whence no man can come forth till he haß paid the last farthing— that the united prayer of the faithful t the communion of the saints, is good and useful, and that " it is a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their Bins." Let us then whilst we assist at Mass, and listen to the solemn requiem chants of the Ohnrch, when we follow bis remains to the green burial-ground by the city when his dust is being laid iv the clay— whilst his form and his words and his personality are fresh in our memory, fervently pray eternal rest to his soul. And may you not hope that those hands which blessed you at Mass, baptized your little ones, anointed and assisted your aged at death, for the past 19 years in this diocese of Dunedin, will be lifted up for you in prayer where the great Shepherd gathers His elect. We pray Thee, therefore, O good, O merciful Lord, Who hast deigned to rank this thy servant among thy apostolic priests, to give him to enjoy companionship with them for evermore. We pray that hia place be this day in peace, and his dwelling in the Holy Hion, through Christ our Lord, Amen. On the conclusion of the Mass aud when the last absolution had been given by the Bishop, the coffin was carried by members of the clergy to the hearse awaiting it at the cathedral gates, Miss Horan, organist of the church, playing, meantime, the Dead Maroh from Saul on the organ. A long cortege was formed. The boys of the Christian Brothers' schools, who, notwithstanding their holidays, had mustered in large numbers, and under the care of their masters, headed the procession. Carriages containing the Bishop and clergy, in surplices and soutanes, followed. Then came the hearse, drawn by four horses, and with white feathers, and glass sides showing the coffin, which was covered with beautiful wreaths of white flowers, brought or sent as a tribute of affection by friends. After the hearse a long line of men marched two by two, and a number of vehicles in single file brought up the rear. Arrived at the gate of the cemetery, the coffin was taken from the hearse and carried by six of the priests to the grave where the Bishop, assisted by the clergy, again officiated. The " Benedictus '" and the "De Profundis " w«e chanted in harmony by the priests and the altar boys' choir, and, as the chanting had also been in the cathedral, were very touching. The grave is situated next to that of the late Rev. Father Fitzgerald, on the kill to the right of the gate of entrance. Amongst those who were present at the funeral were— Sir Robert Stout, the Hon. J. Ballance, the Hon. S. B. Shrimski, Messrs. R. B. Martin, R. Wilson, A. Wilson, S Mackenzie, A. Barrett, T. K. Weldon, J. B. Callan, J. C. Brown, M.H.R. ; J. Roberts, Mayor of Dunedin ; C. Chapman, S. G. Smith, A. H. Ross, M.H.R. ; J. Barron, M.H.R, ; M'Gregor.T. Bracken, F. W. Petre, W. H. M'Keay. J. Carroll, F. Meeoan, A. Burton, J. P. Armstrong, J. Logan, M. Cohen, Dr. Reimer, Dr. De Zouche, Dr. Fergusson, D. W. Woods, R. A. Dunne, J. J. Connor, T. Conway, T. McNamara, J. Murray, C. Columb, M. Fagan, and very many others. There were, in fact, few Catholic families in the town or suburbs who were not represented. Many friends of the deceased, besides, had come from adistance to pay respect to his memory.— R.l.P.

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