Iowa Heritage Digital Collections
State Library of Iowa

1913 Yearbook

1913 Yearbook

Title

1913 Yearbook

Description

This work has been undertaken in God's name, and so far 'tis well. Man may plant
and water the planting, but it is God who giveth the increase.
"Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it"—Pa. 126. We
must not forget, therefore, that the successful issue of this work depends on God's
help, and with hearts full of hope and confidence, we must labor at it as though
everything depended on our own exertions. This college will be a success if the
Catholics of this city and this diocese are worthy children of those who, in ages past,
dotted the face of Europe with colleges and universities. Our beloved Bishop, in
undertaking this work, has no other source of dependence than the faith and charity
of his Priests and people, but on these he rests without fear for the result. This college will not only be a place of education for our Catholic youth, but it will be a place
where Bishop and Priests can meet to commune with one another and with God. It
will be a place where the Priest, weary with toil, may come aside for a time from the
noise and dust of the world, and, while resting his body, renew his love of God and
his zeal in the work of the ministry.
It is not, I think, with but an omen of success that the patron saint of this in*-,
stitution is St. Ambrose. Though in placing this seminary under the patronage of
St. Ambrose, Bishop Cosgrove is simply adopting the work of his predecessors, still
we have reason to think that he may put in a special claim to the protection and
assistance of this great Saint and Doctor of the Church. Like St. Ambrose, Bishop
Cosgrove has been called to the office of the Episcopacy by the voice of Priests and
people. Leo XIII. did but confirm, by his Apostolical authority, the loud cry that
reached his ears from the banks of the Mississippi. Bishop Cosgrove has, therefore, a
double claim on the loyal and affectionate support of his Priests and people in every
good work he undertakes for the welfare of his diocese. They have put upon his
shoulders the heavy burden of the Episcopacy, and it is their bounden duty now to
aid him in bearing that burden becomingly. To do otherwise would be to act the
part of traitors and poltroons. You may say your means are slim and times are hard,
but if you have faith and charity, even as a mustard seed, this work, and greater
than this, shall you do. The great works of the church in every age have been done
by men and women, poor in worldy means, but rich in faith and charity and trust
in God. "What can Teresa and a few ducats do?" St. Teresa used to say; and then
she added: "What cannot Teresa and a few ducats and God do?" And so with this
faith. This poor woman in twenty years built more than thirty monasteries in the land
of Spain. Look at the work which the first missionaries in this Western land did in
their poverty and their spirit of self-sacrifice! Shall we be always content to reap where
others have sown, until faith, which lives on charity, dies out within us? God forbid!
For myself, I believe that St, Ambrose will lend his powerful aid to this undertaking,
and that the Priests and the people of this diocese, and especially of this city of
Davenport, will gather round their Bishop and support his hands in this as in every
other good work, and that ere long, by their united efforts, an institution of learning
will grow up on this beautiful spot, worthy in all its appurtenances of the brightest

Date

1913

Rights

St. Ambrose University, 518 W. Locust St., Davenport, IA 52803

Identifier

http://cdm16810.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16810coll2/id/3753