1913 Yearbook
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Title
1913 Yearbook
Description
In the reign of our Holy Father, Leo XIII; Grover Cleveland being President
of the United States; Henry Cosgrove, D. D., Bishop of Davenport; A. J. Schulte,
President of the Seminary. Given under the Episcopal Seal, this 5th day of July, in
the year of our Lord, 1885.
In the copper box, which was sealed in the cornerstone, are documents and papers as follows: The dedication catalogue of St. Ambrose Seminary, its first and
second prospectus, copies of the Iowa Messenger of Davenport, also the Daily Democrat, Gazette, the Portfolio, Freeman's Journal, Catholic Review, Western Watchman,
Herald des Glaubens, Katholisches Volksblatt.
After the ceremony, Rev. J. P. Ryan of the Cathedral spoke in part as follows,
taking for his text: Go ye therefore and teach all nations—Matt. XXVIII., 19:
If this glorious nation of ours, which we all love so tenderly, and for which we
would shed our heart's last drop of blood, ever perishes, as nations before it in history
have perished, it will perish not from attacks from without, but from lack of virtue
within the hearts of its own citizens. Attacks from without may indeed come, but
they will be powerless to harm it until the canker worm of immorality has destroyed
it from within. When this nation forgets God and disregards His laws, then all its
so-called education and refinement will be only as the gaudy habiliments, with which
often times human vanity surrounds a corpse, and by which it seeks to hide the dark,
cold face of death. It is therefore a matter of patriotism to unite education with
religion, as it is a want of patriotism to seek to divorce things which the eternal law
of God has decreed must go together. The institution whose cornerstone has been
laid here today, is intended to educate, not the head apart from the heart, but the
head and the heart together. This is to be a Catholic College where secular and
religious education will go hand in hand. We look forward with hope and confidence
to the time when this institution will send forth from its walls thorough-going
scholars, thorough-going Americans, and, above all, thorough-going Catholics, not a few
of whom we trust will be found worthy to assume the sacerdotal garb and to minister at God's altar. Here today, our beloved Bishop has planted the mustard seed,
which we all hope to see grown into the sturdy oak, which will one day spread its
branches throughout the whole extent of this diocese and beyond it. The want of such
an institution as this has been long felt by the intelligent Catholic population of this
fair city of Davenport.
Now, therefore, that the work of constructing a building worthy of being called
St. Ambrose College has been fully begun, all our hearts must be truly glad. Well
begun, says the old proverb, is half done. We have begun well, and may console
ourselves with the thought that already our task is half done; but let us not forget
that a work half done is a work incomplete, and if left so, is simply a ruin. Our Lord
himself warns us that if we undertake to build a house, we must first of all sit down
and calmly consider the cost, lest after we begun the work we may not have the
wherewith to complete it and thus make ourselves a fit laughing stock for our enemies.
of the United States; Henry Cosgrove, D. D., Bishop of Davenport; A. J. Schulte,
President of the Seminary. Given under the Episcopal Seal, this 5th day of July, in
the year of our Lord, 1885.
In the copper box, which was sealed in the cornerstone, are documents and papers as follows: The dedication catalogue of St. Ambrose Seminary, its first and
second prospectus, copies of the Iowa Messenger of Davenport, also the Daily Democrat, Gazette, the Portfolio, Freeman's Journal, Catholic Review, Western Watchman,
Herald des Glaubens, Katholisches Volksblatt.
After the ceremony, Rev. J. P. Ryan of the Cathedral spoke in part as follows,
taking for his text: Go ye therefore and teach all nations—Matt. XXVIII., 19:
If this glorious nation of ours, which we all love so tenderly, and for which we
would shed our heart's last drop of blood, ever perishes, as nations before it in history
have perished, it will perish not from attacks from without, but from lack of virtue
within the hearts of its own citizens. Attacks from without may indeed come, but
they will be powerless to harm it until the canker worm of immorality has destroyed
it from within. When this nation forgets God and disregards His laws, then all its
so-called education and refinement will be only as the gaudy habiliments, with which
often times human vanity surrounds a corpse, and by which it seeks to hide the dark,
cold face of death. It is therefore a matter of patriotism to unite education with
religion, as it is a want of patriotism to seek to divorce things which the eternal law
of God has decreed must go together. The institution whose cornerstone has been
laid here today, is intended to educate, not the head apart from the heart, but the
head and the heart together. This is to be a Catholic College where secular and
religious education will go hand in hand. We look forward with hope and confidence
to the time when this institution will send forth from its walls thorough-going
scholars, thorough-going Americans, and, above all, thorough-going Catholics, not a few
of whom we trust will be found worthy to assume the sacerdotal garb and to minister at God's altar. Here today, our beloved Bishop has planted the mustard seed,
which we all hope to see grown into the sturdy oak, which will one day spread its
branches throughout the whole extent of this diocese and beyond it. The want of such
an institution as this has been long felt by the intelligent Catholic population of this
fair city of Davenport.
Now, therefore, that the work of constructing a building worthy of being called
St. Ambrose College has been fully begun, all our hearts must be truly glad. Well
begun, says the old proverb, is half done. We have begun well, and may console
ourselves with the thought that already our task is half done; but let us not forget
that a work half done is a work incomplete, and if left so, is simply a ruin. Our Lord
himself warns us that if we undertake to build a house, we must first of all sit down
and calmly consider the cost, lest after we begun the work we may not have the
wherewith to complete it and thus make ourselves a fit laughing stock for our enemies.
Date
1913
Rights
St. Ambrose University, 518 W. Locust St., Davenport, IA 52803
Identifier
http://cdm16810.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16810coll2/id/3752