CHAPTER VII.-THE JESUITS IN ST. AGATHA, JUNE
15,1847, TO 1856.
The various Bishops
having jurisdiction over this district never failed in their efforts to
secure good priests in sufficient number to care for the crying wants
of their flocks. The good ones were always too few and many were
worn out long before their time by the strenuous work before them, and
the hardships and privations they had to undergo without stint or time
for repose. Thus the Bishops were obliged to accept a
considerable number of transient priests from abroad as they turned up.
In their need the Bishops were generally disposed to give these
wanderers a trial. Some did excellent work, while others, instead
of building up the church were unreliable, and soon began to give
scandal. Distance and poor means of travel sometimes kept the
scandal long from reaching the Bishop's ears. Usually drink was
the cause of the trouble. When the measure of scandal was full to
overflowing the poor priest was suspended and obliged to go elsewhere,
often to do the same thing in many places. At that time the
regulations concerning the admission of priests into a Diocese were not
as thorough nor as well followed as at a later time. The call of
Father Sanderl was no doubt intended to bring here other priests of his
Order. In 1847 two of them came here, Fathers B. A. Schmid and
another, but they remained only a short time. Finally Bishop De
Charboianel succeeded in securing a number of Jesuits. In this
attempt it seems he would have failed had not the revolutionary
upheaval in Europe forced some of them to leave their country. Be
this as it may, the first two Jesuits came to St. Agatha with one Lay
Brother, June 15, 1847. They were royally welcome and took
possession of the two miserable rooms of the log school. The
people brought them plenty of furniture and victuals.
At once they began their labors by giving
Jubilee Missions in the chief centres of their new field of activity,
and thus soon became well acquainted with the region and the people.
At this time the Catholic population of
the County of Waterloo was estimated by the new priests at 8,000 to
10,000 souls. At New Germany alone they said there were at least
3,000. Churches of a permanent character there were only two, a
fairly good frame church at St. Agatha and one of stone erected in the
early part of 1840 at Preston. In 1842 this church was under
roof, but unfurnished inside. All the other missions were without a
church with the exception of New Germany, where the poor old log
church-school was still in use. At St.
Clem ent's they had a very good log
church, but it was too small for the congregation.
The names of these Fathers were Lucas
Caveng, a Swiss from Chur, and Bernard Fritsch, from Amberg, Bavaria.
They began their first mission at New
Germany Aug. 29, 1847, and closed it the following Sunday. But
they had to return Sept. 5 to finish the work of hearing confessions
they could not hear during the mission. On the 12th of September
they began the mission in St. Agatha, and continued it for two solid
weeks. September 25th they started in Preston and in St.
Clement's on the 18th October.
All these missions. were so well attended
that the priests had to preach in the open air, which they did four
times each day with constantly increasing