IN THE COUNTY OF WATERLOO
57
CHAPTER VII.-THE JESUITS, 1847 TO 1851, INCLUSIVE.
In June, 1847, two Jesuit Fathers, Caveng and
Fritsch, came with a Lay Brother to St. Agatha. As soon as the
news had reached New Germany, the people delegated several of their men
to go and bring these priests over to them. The new arrivals
received them kindly, promised to look after them as well as they
could, but for the present had to remain where the Bishop had sent
them. A few days later another more numerous delegation came with
the same negative result.
The records show that Father Caveng went to New
Germany for the first time on July 8, and again on the 18th, also on
Aug. 22. On Sunday, the 29th August, both Fathers went over and
opened a Mission, which they continued for a whole week with an
extraordinary and ever-increasing throng of people. One of the
Missionaries reports it as follows (in part) :
"We began the exercises of the Mission on the
29th of August, the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The
large attendance and the smallness of the church obliged us to preach
in the open air. This we did four times daily. The success
obtained surpassed our most sanguine expectations. Whole families
came on foot, on horseback and in oxen wagons from great distances.
On the second and third days many went home twelve to thirty
miles to bring their families and neighbors. One who had come
just for the Sunday on account of pressing work, went home during the
night and brought his family and friends the next day, and stayed until
the close of the Mission. Then he was sorry that it was over.
Even the most urgent work of harvesting was left undone.
People seemed insensible to hunger, thirst, and rest. Many
who had for years refused to go to confession came before daybreak and
besieged the confessional for hours till they could enter it. At
the close of the Mission a large cross 26 feet high, that was carried
on the shoulders of the young men to its place was erected in the
cemetery. What sweet joy filled all hearts on seeing the sign of
Salvation erected on the hill dominating the whole district!
left the good people on Saturday, Sept. 4th,
thanking the Lord for all the graces bestowed and promising them to
return on September the 8th, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed
Virgin, to allow those to go to confession who had no opportunity to do
so during the Mission for want of time on the part of the priests."
(Jesuit Archives.)
The first temporal undertaking of the Jesuits
here was the long-contemplated building of the new church. At his
first visit here Father Caveng, on July 8, called a meeting at which it
was decided to begin, work at once. The next day an army of
laborers and a number of teams were on the spot to grade the site and
excavate the foundation. The church was built on the east, the
opposite side of the road to the old church. Father Caveng, says
that it was 50 x 60 feet, but it was considerably longer and
constructed of field stones, a very solid and rather handsome edifice,
so that as Father Holzer writes later it would have been an ornament to
any Tyrolese town. Father Sadler states that the church would
cost $10,000.00. However, the labor, sand, stones and timbers were
given gratis. Men, women and children vied with each other at the
building so that it grew apace. When Father Holzer came late in
the fall of the following year to live at New Germany he directed the
completion of the church and dedicated it on the First Sunday of
Advent, 1848, with all possible solemnity. Mr. N. Sorg, the
teacher, brought the St. Agatha choir