A FUNERAL· ORATION,
PREACHED BY THE

EEV. ARCHDEACON O’KEEFFE,
ON

POPE PIUS VII.,
In t{re (^ttJubrnL Cork,
IAST THE YE.AK 1Θ25,
WITH A BRIEF

MEMOIR OF THE PREACHER,
BY THE REV. DEAN MURPHY.

PUBLISHED FOR THE BENEFIT OF

MISS NANO NAGLE’S ASYLUM
FOR AGED AND DESTITUTE WOMEN.
DOUGLAS STREET^. .CORK.

: '.

CORK :
PRINTED BY J. MAHONY, 36, COOK. STREET.
1868.

27V033

FUNERAL ORATION
ok rprcrs vn.
“ He shall shew forth the discipline he hath learned and shall glory in
the Law of the Covenant of the Lord. The memory of him shall not depart
away and his name shall be in request from generation to generation.
Nations shall declare his wisdom and the Church shall show forth his
praise.”—Eccles, c. 39, v. 11.13.14.

Such is th© consolation addressed by Religion to
those that mourn over departed worth and great­
ness. It comes upon the mind to-day with peculiar
interest and energy, amidst these emblems which
death has employed to proclaim his triumph, and
to enforce the humiliating conviction of our no­
thingness.
Without its inspiring voice sorrow
would be aggravated by the reflection that of all
we loved, or cherished, or venerated here, there re­
mained but the sad remembrance of the worth that
was prized, and that barren representation where
sorrow would look in vain for its object, and where
the honoured remains of what we deplore are want­
ing to our homage. Her light has not only.pierced
the depths and scattered the darkness of the grave,
revealing far beyond it that purer and loftier state
of being where rest the spirits of the just ; but it
has concentrated its glories on earth, and formed

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for the brow of virtue a crown, glorious and
enduring. Those high and heart-stirring associa­
tions that throng upon the memory, when we hear
of those who nobly trod the high path of honor
and religion, at the risk of life and at the expense
of every earthly enjoyment—of men girded with
power only for the happiness of others, whose
triumphs are those of humanity, the elements of
whose fame are not cemented with human blood, not
loaded with the orphan’s sorrow or cursed by the
widow’s lamentation. Theirs is the record that
survives the lapse of ages, the ravages of barbarism,
the revolutions of empires, aye, and the destruction
of this great and glorious frame of nature itself;
whilst the achievement of heroes, the splendour, the
pomp, and the pride of kings and conquerors shrink
into some small measure of earth and are forgotten.
But when the work of blood and the scenes of
destruction though blazoned on the scutcheon or
inscribed on perishing marble to be the wonder of
the weak and the execration of the wise, the man
whose grandeur is from within, and from God, lives
in the memory of mankind whose interests he upheld
and whose happiness he promoted. “His name
shall be in request from generation to generation.
Nations shall declare his wisdom and the Church
shall show forth his praise.”
The immortality promised by the spirit to the

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name of the just, springs from his connection with
God’s everlasting counsels in promoting the happi­
ness of mankind, by the establishment of peace and
truth and religion upon earth. To this great end,
alone worthy of the Almighty Parent, all the inter­
ference of His providence is uniformly directed.
As the mighty superintendant of this great plan,
the eyes of the Lord are fixed upon all the devices
of men and the movements of society, approving
their counsels or bringing them to nought, exalting
or depressing according as they promote or con­
tradict the final and magnificent results of His
counsels. This will be found to be the solution of
the great problem of human revolutions and of the
extraordinary catastrophes, whether of individuals
or nations, antecedent to the establishment of the
Gospel ; and all the force of analogy, and all the
facts of history, and all the destinies of nations,
demonstrate the justice of its application to the
subsequent history of mankind. To this we trace
the strange revolutions that occurred in the diferent periods of time—the use, the progress, and
the decay of those ancient'and mighty dynasties
that overshadowed this earth in remotest anti­
quity, whose names would scarcely be known to­
day were they not registered in the sacred records
of God’s eternal counsels, and whose unwieldy
grandeur and extensive domination after being ren-

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dered subservient to the establishment of these
same counsels were rolled down the steep of time
and plunged in that devouring gulph whose silent
waves, gloomy and fathomless, now roll over the
perishing wreck of their histories.
In these our days, that same unseen Providence
is employing the resources of boundless wisdom in
shaping all events, and directing all characters, to
its own great and final purpose, whilst it appears
to the undiscerning mind to be regardless of human
affairs, whilst the vast and varied scene of human
events seems to us tending one definite object,
whilst the revolutions of states, and the wreck of
empires, and the fate of individuals seem to origi­
nate in the passions of one or the frenzy of many ;
all these multiplied agitations of life, even the
blood-stained triumphs of conquest itself and all
the fiercer conflicts of worldly and ferocious pas­
sions are bent by the overruling power of God to
the promotion of His own eternal purposes.
“ The counsel of God alone remaineth for ever/’
Whatever approaches it shines in its brightness ;
whatever promotes it partakes of its grandeur,
its immensity and its elevation.
It is stamped
with the impress of eternity, the character of God
himself, who liveth and reigneth for ever. This
is the source of that glory that crowns the mem-.
ory of the departed saint whose death is felt and

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mourned to-day throughout the Christian world ;
and his high association with the designs of God
is his title to that immortality, which virtue
alone deserves and God only can give.
To have
been selected from all flesh to judge the people of
God, and rule the household of faith, when all the
weapons of destruction were wielded by the mighty
against it, to have been placed at the helm of the
bark amid the darkness and the storm, and amid the
ravings of the tempest and the thick darkness of
the night, to hear, with Peter’s faith, the unearthly
voice and see theGodlike form of Him that trod upon
the troubled waves to protect and to encourage
amid the wreck of all beside, to have bound himself,
like Peter, in his youth, and to have gone whither
it pleased him, and like his predecessor in office and
in suffering, to feel the rude hand of another bind
him, when years, and care, and infirmity had sil­
vered his head and bowed his wasting frame, to be
dragged in these bonds before the rulers of this
world, for justice sake, and then to exhibit earth’s
sublimest spectacle, the good man contending with
the earth-born brutal might, and amid the tri­
umph of the bad and the prostration of the good,
to stand up fearless, though alone, and plead for
right and justice, for humanity and for God, to
brave the tempest of a tyrant’s rage and to brighten
the gloom of captivity, until the bars of his prison­

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house were broken and forged into fetters for the
tyrant that bound him;, to have loved and restored
the beauty of the House of God and the place
where His glory dwelleth, to stand upon the
watch-tower by day and by night for the safety of
the Church of God, to have enlarged the place of
her tent, to have lengthened her cords and
strengthened her stakes, to have sent the Apostle
to his labour and the martyr to his crown, to have
shod the feet and anointed the head of him that
flies with an angel’s wing to carry the tidings of
salvation and the name of Christ to lands that are
far away and to the islands of the sea that have
long expected the brightness of their vision, and
last and best of all, because their consummation
and the crown, to have gloriously persevered to
the end, and to have died, not on the cross of
Peter but in his spirit, a penitent in death, after all
his labour and all his love· These are his claims
to that veneration which his name excites amongst
the faithful. “ The memory of him shall not depart
away, and his name shall be in request from gene­
ration to generation. Nations shall declare his
wisdom and the Church shall show forth his praise.”
The history of every period is an exemplification
of the Providence which guides and directs the
Church of God according to the promise of her
founder, and never was that overruling care more

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powerfully evinced than in this generation.
At
the termination of the last, and the commencement
of this century, Europe presented an aspect of des­
perate ferocity, and more desperate opinions and
theories than ever disgraced mankind at any for­
mer period. Its mind and spirit were shrouded by
a dark and blasphemous scepticism and by a rest­
less desire for changes, systems, and experiments on
society and its institutions, both civil and religious.
It was proclaimed by a few master spirits that this
was the age of inquiry and superior illumination,
and the result was, that all that was fixed or true
in legislation, morals, or religion, was subjected to
the examination of minds without the capacity to
investigate the evidences of truth, and without
virtue enough to appreciate the institutions which
the wisdom of God or the experience of man had
established for the repose and happiness of man­
kind. Religion, the glorious work of God, was
decreed as the artifice of man, the engine of oppres­
sion, the bondage of the free-born spirit. All the
infirmities incidental to its possessors—all the
crimes of all the hypocrites that ever wore its garb
without inhaling its spirit were raked together with
laborious industry, and flung by impiety and cor­
ruption at the altar of the living God. The monu­
ments of the Jewish antiquity, on which revelation
is established were assailed in the hope that if once
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shaken the whole edifice of religion would fid I i o
the earth. Its facts were declared to be false., ab­
surd, and ridiculous, its characters fictitious—1·:?·
legislation incoherent, arbitrary and ferocious— its
morality without principle or basis, and its wboh
tendency gross, exclusive, uncultivated and u?·philosophical.
Every department of science was
scrutinized to accredit these assertions. External
nature was pressed against God into the service of
a lying philosophy—the bowels of the earth were
ransacked, the bosom of the volcano explored, the
phenomena of the heavens belied, and even the half
obliterated inscriptions on Egyptian walls con­
strued to the support of impiety.
The specious
and enlightened infidelity that disgraced some of
the brightest ornaments of English literature,
and which the people could neither reach nor under­
stand, was transferred to a light-minded people,
and there prepared for the taste, and adapted to
the capacities of all orders of intelligence through­
out Europe.
These productions of impiety were
hourly discharged upon the public mind from the
presses of France, Germany and Holland, misre­
presenting truth, distorting facts, blinding the
judgment; by captious sophistry and licentious ridi­
cule, until every fixed principle of truth, and every
idea of duty and all respect for authority, whether
parental, social, or religious, were effaced from the

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minds of the growing generation. I shall not at­
tempt to crowd into the same perspective the
various and disjointed scenes of anarchy and horror and bloodshed that have been acted before the
face of Europe and the world—the violent convulsions that tore up the foundations of law and
religion in some countries, and whose sound shook
the whole frame of society in others—the rising up
of nations against each other—war scattering its
lightnings and rolling its red deluge from one end
of the earth to the other—terrible catastrophes of
nations and individuals—men exalted to-day, falling
to-morrow and drawing the nations after them to
the brink of destruction—institutions overthrown,

the course of events impeded—men’s minds unsettied and God almost forgotten. Amid this terrible
breaking up of society the Church of God was left
without its earthly ruler by the death of Pius the
Sixth. Robbed of his temporal power, impeded in
the exercise of his spiritual jurisdiction, insulted,
abused and ill-treated, he sunk under the pressure
of his sufferings and died in prison, one of the
countless victims to the mild and tolerant spirit
of the new and enlightened philosophy.
The
persecution and dispersion of all orders of the
priesthood in Italy did not afford much hope that
he would be speedily followed by a successor. The
French Directory proclaimed to the world that they

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bad annihilated the Papal authority, both temporal
and spiritual ; and religious fanaticism hailed with
no ordinary congratulations the widest accomplish­
ment of the Apocalypse, the destruction of Anti­
christ and the commencement of the millenium
But long before modern philosophism held up its
glimmering taper to the sun or religious extrava­
gance divided Christianity, it was written “ the
weapon that is formed against thee shall not pros­
per,” and accordingly it was dashed to pieces
against the Rock of Ages. The hordes of revolu­
tionary France were swept from the face of Italy
by a victorious army, and an opportunity was
afforded for holding a conclave at Venice three
months after the death of Pius the Sixth. On
the 14th of March, 1800, Gregory Barnabas
Chiaramonte was declared Supreme Pastor of the
Fold of Jesus Christ, and the 251st from Peter,
whose chair he was to fill and whose authority he
was to exercise.
He was born at Cesena in the Roman States on
the 14th of August, 1742, and received from God
one of his first and most effectual graces, a sainted
mother. He devoted himself, like Samuel, from
his youth, to the service of the Altar, and after
being distinguished, even amongst the most emi­
nent, for his learning, his sanctity, and apostolic
zeal, he was promoted successively to the sees of

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Imola and Tivoli, and subsequently to the dignity
of Cardinal by Pius the 6th. The wisdom that
guided his conduct in the administration of his
diocese, the rare combination of unalterable meek­
ness with the most unbending firmness, the simpli­
city and suavity of his manners, exalted by that
severity of thought and persevering vigour in con­
duct which marked and made his country’s charac­
ter in the proudest day of her glory, were the
qualities required for the government of the Church
at that period, and therefore did Providence exalt
him to the Chair of Peter.
In providing for the necessities of the universal
Church, France, once the most distinguished, and
then the most distracted and desolate portion of
Christ’s inheritance, attracted his attention. Here
he had to contend not only with the opposition and
hatred of impiety which disputed every inch, but
even with an alarming schism which threatened the
integrity of faith and of discipline. The wisdom
that governed the Church in the extinction of the
great schism which commenced after the death of
Gregory the 11th, in 1378, afforded him its light.
He demanded from the pastors of the Church of
France, whether ancient or constitutional, that
submission and sacrifice which the Council of Pisa
required of the contending rivals, Gregory the
12th and Benedict the 1.3th ; and subsequently des-

14

tituted those pastors who, abounding in their sense
and disregarding the spirit of the times, and the
strange and perilous circumstances of the Church,
refused to sacrifice themselves for the preservation
of that religion to which they owed their rights
and their dignities.
On this occasion he was brought into contact
with one of those strange combinations of charac­
ter formed in the stormy atmosphere of the French
revolution—one of those bold and gigantic minds,
ot made for treading the ordinary paths of men
and always destined to be either the blessing or
the curse of the human race—the late ruler of
France, In him all that was stern, sanguinary, or
godless in the revolution that engendered him,
started into one living and dreadful impersonation,
combining the reckless, daring impiety of a people,
with the decision, the energy, and the rapidity that
belongs to one fiercer and determined spirit.
Nursed among visions of rebel grandeur, his early
life was a wild and fiery dream of strife and blood,
and desperate hazard, and fierce conflict for pre­
eminence and mastery, until at last he sprang into
the seat of power amid the divisions and weakness
of contending factions, substituting the milder
despotism of one for the remorseless tyranny of
many ; and holding out to France the prospect of
internal repose to encourage her in the invasion of

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the peace of Europe. He restored religion to con­
ciliate some ; he degraded its ministers to gratify
others ; he spared the chair of Peter to make it
the footstool of his throne, and he preserved its
temporalities to plunder them at his leisure. Such
at length appeared to be his policy, when, after
repeated violations of the faith of treaties, and
after resorting to artifices that bespoke some inhe­
rent meanness of character, he seized on the
temporalities of the Holy See, and justified the
usurpation by the refusal of the Pontiff to join the
general confederation of the continental powers
against England, and to close the only ports that
were open to her commerce or her navy in the
Mediterranean. In vain did the Holy Pather re­
present his government as one of peace, that his
temporal possessions were given to ensure his in­
dependence in the exercise of Christianity, that his
states, so far from being involved in wars, should
be as so many cities of refuge from the calamities
that followed that scourge of Heaven, and, above
all, that he had not received the least unjust ag­
gression that could serve as a pretext for such a
declaration.
Ambition had no ears for reason, or justice, or
truth, and the Pontiff was stripped of his temporal
power by a formal decree, issued by Napoleon from
the imperial camp before Vienna. Ignorance and

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infidelity could not comprehend the right by which
the Fisherman’s successor possessed even the
semblance of temporal authority. The new philo­
sophy was so habituated to reduce all right to
brutal force, that the weakness of a state was
considered sufficient pretext for destroying its
independence.
The rights, however, of the
Supreme Pontiff were established on a prescription
of 1500 years, a- title which no dynasty in Europe
could exhibit in support of its power and authority.
He was sanctioned also by a title which few sove­
reignties, whether ancient or modern, can boast of,
its uniform tendency to promote the civilization of
mankind, and its increasing efforts to preserve and
to diffuse a knowledge of the arts and sciences.
For the services it rendered to religion and to
science I appeal to the monuments of history, and
to open, fair, unprejudiced statement, not to the
pages of prejudice and interest and foul besotted
calumny. For 300 years they combated the igno­
rance and the so called illumination of G-reece and
Rome, and subsequently they withstood and en­
lightened the deep-rooted barbarism of the northern
nations that swarmed in countless myriads to break
up the unwieldy mass of Roman dominion. The
Egyptian darkness that covered the wild and savage
route never reached the dominion of the Pontiff.
Knowledge took sanctuary at his altar. The time-

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honored rolls of literature were placed within the
veil of the Temple, and whilst some endeavoured to
civilize the untaught savage, others were employed
in restoring and preserving whatever was valuable
in sacred or profane antiquity. When Italy in the
8th century, neglected by its temporal sovereigns,
groaned under the tyranny of barbarous invaders,
the RomanStates and with them knowledge and lite­
rature were defended and protected by the Father of
the Faithful. After filling the East in vain with his
complaints, Stephen the 2nd crossed the Alps and
sought the assistance of a hero whose wisdom and
valour were employed, not in destroying the monu­
ments of the arts, not in burning or plundering the
collections of literature—the usual resources of en­
lightened modern warfare—but in defending those
treasures against barbarous power.
The 9th century witnessed the exertions of the
Roman Pontiffs in favour of peace and knowledge
and civilization, when the throne of the Cæsars was
destroyed by the incursions of Saracen power, and
France, Sicily, and Home itself, were cursed by
their oppression. When one undistinguished ruin
awaited every institution, political, social or reli­
gious, the wise and vigorous policy of Leo the 3rd
directed and encouraged the talents and exertions
of Charles the Great to the acquisition of real and
substantial glory, by erecting a barrier against the
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inroads of a barbarous and un-christian power.
When the empire of Charles himself crumbles into
dust by intestine divisions, and the sons of Louis,
weak and wicked, contended for the fragments of
empire without the least regard for the rights and
the happiness of the people, the interests of the
nations were upheld by the exertions of the
Supreme Pontiff.
Europe at this period was blessed in possessing,
amidst division, confusion and violence, a religious
power which, becoming more respected in pro­
portion as kings and courts sunk deeper in cor­
ruption, barbarism and crime, could interpose with
effect in the destructive and sanguinary quarrels of
princes, and save the people who are always
rhe victims.
In the darkness that is said to have covered the
nations daring the 10th century no exertion was
made to dissipate its gloom except by the Roman
Pontiffs. Even then, when Europe was one scene
of confusion, faction and disorder, which even Rome
itself did not escape, when the freedom of canonical
election was impeded by the intrigues of Princes
and Rulers, and the Chair of Peter was dishonored
by some who filled it, the noblest exertions were
made for the restoration of order, and the diffusion
of knowledge and religion.
Poland, Denmark,
Sweden and Muscovy received, for the first time,

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the lights of Christianity and the elements of
civilization through the exertions and. solicitude of
the Roman Pontiff. At the close of that century
it was from the Palace of the Lateran that the rays
of science first diverged, when Sylvester the Snd
exhibited to the world the noblest combination of
extraordinary talents and splendid virtues, kindling
throughout Italy, France and Germany a taste
for knowledge so long neglected.
His exertions
for the restoration and diffusion of the severer
sciences, which he himself had diligently culti­
vated, has assigned to him a lofty place amongst
the benefactors of knowledge.
The increase of influence and authority which
took place under Gregory the 7th was not attained
by policy or design, but resulted from events in
the production of which they possessed no power
and in whose regulations they could scarcely
exercise control, namely, the establishment of the
dynasty of the Capets in France, and the conquest
of Naples, Sicily, and England by the Norman
powers.
At this period Europe was indebted to their
wisdom and precaution in transferring the seat of
barbarous warfare to Asia, and without any power,
genius, or arms, but the Cross, they saved the
nations from the inroads of sanguinary and fana­
tical power, and the mind of Europe itself from

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sinking once more into the profoundest lethargy.
Such were their exertions at that period, and
true philosophy will not contest to-day the salutary
influence as well as the absolute necessity of the
precautionary system they adopted. From their
exertions arose the dawn of a new political system
on the ruins of feudal government, the enfranchise­
ment of citizens, the emancipation of cities, the pro­
gress of light, industry and commerce during the
12th century, whose spirit of high-minded honour
and chivalry was enkindled by them, and without
which the philosophy and knowledge of this day
could not have existed to misrepresent their mo­
tives or deny their influence.
The contests with kings and courts which com­
menced by Gregory the 7th respecting investitures
and continued for nearly a century, has been misre­
presented and attributed to the thirst of power, and
condemned by sycophants and flatterers ; but that
contest originated in the absolute necessity of res­
cuing the offices and dignities of the Church out
of the hands of men who degraded the Altar and
debased the ministry for political ends or a sordid
interest, and a long experience justified the Pontiff,
as the worst evils that ever afflicted the Church of
Christ may be traced to the interference of
designing politicians and anti-christian courts.
During this same period Europe was indebted

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to the exertions of Calixtus the 2nd for peace which
he procured by the sole influence of his virtues, and
subsequently it owed its safety to the wisdom of
Alexander the 3rd, the strenuous opposer of the
encroachments and usurpation of the Emperor
Frederick, and the author and head of the patriotic
league which the Italian Republics formed against
his barbarous power. For his wise and enlightened
policy on this occasion a writer not to be suspected
of prejudice, the impious Voltaire, declared him to
be the benefactor of the human race. In this same
age, whilst the general interests of humanity were
upheld by the influence of the Supreme Pastor, we
should not forget that his power was often exerted
in the protection of individual right against lawless
power and unjust oppression. When the Lionhearted Richard, the noblest of England’s Monarchs,
pined in a dungeon, forgotten by Europe, the only
power that espoused his cause was that of Celestine
the 3rd who compelled the Sovereigns of Germany
and Austria to release the captive whom they
unjustly imprisoned. In fact the whole of their
history bears unequivical testimony to the bene­
ficial efforts of their influence. It proves that when
the arts were almost lost, and sciences had nearly
perished, when polished languages were exchanged
for the jargon of barbarous invaders, when human
institutions crumbled into dust before their stormy

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career and human knowledge withered at the foul
contact of northern barbarism, when one over­
whelming deluge of ignorance, ferocity, rapine and
blood, rolled over the fairest countries of Southern
Europe, the successor of Peter seized the expiring
torch of science, held it unquenched amid the flood
and the storm, waved it for ages over the wild
waves of ignorance and barbarism that raged far
below, until the spirit of that religion of which he
was the head, brooding a second time over the
turbulent chaos, dried up the foul waters and made
a pathway for science to re-visit once more the
dwellings of men.
Their interference in politics arose from the
circumstances of the times, and was it not a hap­
piness for the nations and for princes themselves,
whose headlong violence and ambition were with­
out measure or restraint, that there should exist a
power capable of supplying the acknowledged in­
sufficiency of international laws, and by protecting
alike the powerful and the oppressed save both from
mutual horrors and mutual destruction. It was a
real happiness, and the dispassionate and truly phi­
losophic mind that is capable of combining events
and tracing their causes will freely acknowledge
the unspeakable importance of the benefits con­
ferred by the successors of Peter on society,
knowledge and religion.

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After the occupation of the Ecclesiastical States
by the army of the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte
a system of unequalled insult, outrage and persecu­
tion commenced, disgraceful to the tyrant who
inflicted it, as it was painful to the feelings of the
Supreme Pontiff. His friends were imprisoned and
in some instances put to death or banished, his
correspondence violated, his communications with
the universal Church impeded, his person insulted,
and his safety frequently endangered. At length
after 18 months of patient endurance, on the 6th
of July, 1809, his palace was surrounded at mid­
night by the military, the doors that led to his
apartments broken open, and the French Com­
mander apologised for his conduct by saying that
he had taken an oath of fidelity to the Emperor,
and that he had it in commission to receive the
Holy Father’s renunciation and to offer him a pen­
sion, otherwise that he must be regarded as a
traitor and removed from Rome. The Pontiff
calmly replied that he. also had taken an oath of
fidelity to God, and that he should observe it at
the risk of life. Without any farther intimation,
or allowing him a moment to prepare for a long
and painful journey, he was dragged by a brutal
soldiery to a close carriage, and conveyed from
Rome by the most unfrequented ways. The suf­
ferings he endured, the indignities he bore, the

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unnecessary outrages inflicted upon him during a
tedious journey in which he travelled incessantly,
exposed him frequently to the danger of death
before he arrived at Savona, the place of his
captivity. The patient suffering of an aged and
infirm man, the unbroken calm, the simplicity and.
sanctity for which he was distinguished, the mild­
ness with which he received every insult and bore
every privation, excited in his behalf a general
sympathy and obliged the tyrant to soften a little
the rigours of confinement. After 3 years of cap ­
tivity at Savona, on the 20th June, 1812, he was
removed without notice to Fontainebleau, that he
might be more accessible to the emissaries of the
Emperor and be the more easily induced to make
those sacrifices which the boundless ambition of
the tyrant sought to extort from him ; and which
he intended at any risk to complete after his vic­
torious return from the Russian campaign for which
he was preparing to depart. Every expedient was
resorted to for the purpose of bending the inflexible
resolution of the Holy Father. The dreadful evils
that afflicted the Church, the utter destruction that
awaited her institutions, the increasing dangers of
an universal schism, were designedly represented to
him as the consequences of his conduct, and as
likely to render him an object of execration to
posterity. The Pontiff, however, had taken his

25

277033

stand. He saw distinctly the ruin that threatened
the Church, but he knew that it was not the duty
of man to extricate her from danger by the com­
promise of principle, and he resolved not to imitate
the timidity of Oza in raising his hand to support
the Ark, though falling. Having carried concession
to just limits, he relied on the unfailing promise
of the Redeemer to be with His Church to the
consummation of ages, and he left the event to
Providence—a Providence who nobly, amply, and
speedily vindicated his faith, his wisdom, and his
resolution.
After the disastrous campaign in Russia the
tyrant’s conscience smote him, and he thought that
a personal interview with the Holy Father might
effect his purposes. The moment he conceived the
idea, with his characteristic rapidity, he flew from
Paris, reached Fontainbleau, and stood in the
presence of the Holy Father. The Pontiff fixed
his eyes upon him, then raised his hands and eyes
to heaven. Ho word of reproach—no complaints of
hardships endured, though there was much room
to complain,—no mention of indignities offered and
of wants and privations borne—escaped from the
lips of the aged and venerable priest of God. The
deep, unearthly repose of his pale and emaciated
visage struck the tyrant with awe, for it imaged
forth a soul whose thoughts, and hopes, and joys,
D

26

and sorrows were of a loftier stamp than his—-the
man of so much blood, and so many battles. His
cheek was doubly blanched. It seemed to his at­
tendants, whilst he gazed on the upturned visage
of the man of God, as if he were reading the hand­
writing on the wall that spoke his own destruction
nigh. He recovered, and played the tyrant. The
Pontiff looked on in patience, but was inflexible,
and the interview was unproductive, except of in­
dignation and rebuke and fiery disordered insult on
the part of the usurper.
Thus far flowed the tide of proud imperial pas­
sion until the voice of the Eternal went forth as of
old, f< Thus far shalt thou go and no further, and
here shall thy proud waves be staid.” Hein whose
balance the kings of the earth are weighed found
the tyrant wanting.
He had not fulfilled his des­
tiny. He was destined to break the rod of oppres­
sion and he himself became the worst of oppressors.
Earth and its princes rose up against him and he
fell, and the noise and the depth and the degrada­
tion of his fall astonished the nations. The cry of
the prophet was rung through the earth, (t How
art thou fallen to the earth, thou that didst wound
the nations and didst say in thy heart I will exalt
my throne above the stars, I will sit in the moun­
tain of the Covenant. But thou shalt be brought
down.
They that see thee shall turn to thee and

27

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say, is this the man that troubled the earth, that
shook the kingdoms, that made the world a wilder­
ness, and opened not the prisons to his prisoners.
All the kings of the nations have slept in glory,
every one in his own house, but thou art cast out
as an insupportable branch, defiled.
Thou shalt
not keep company with them, even in thy burial,
for the Lord of Hosts hath decreed and who can

disannul it, His hand is stretched out and who can
turn it away.”—Isaiah, 14.
A few months previous to the tyrant’s fall he
had, without assigning any reason, ordered the
liberation of the Pontiff, and on the 24th of January, 1814, the Holy Father departed from the place
of his captivity.
The enthusiasm with which he
was hailed wherever he appeared, the public de·
monstrations, the sanguine joy at the liberation of
the aged Confessor of the Church exhibited by all
ranks and classes and persuasions, evinced at once
their sympathy for his great and unmerited sufferings, and their high admiration of the noble spirit
which could not be subdued by violence and would
not yield to the more venal influence of power. He
reassumed at once the care of the Universal
Church, and not content with repairing the inju­
ries it had received, and restoring its former splen­
dour, he sent the apostles of labour and love
throughout the boundless regions of the East and

28

West.
The Missions of Setchum, Tonkin, Siam,
Malabar and Coromandel revived beneath his care,
and even in China, where the martyr this moment
is pouring his blood as a testimony, he has planted
the Cross of Christ, so that the storm of persecu­
tion but serves to root it more deeply. The wan­
dering tribes of Western Tartary also attracted his
attention, and the men of the desert have come to
the fold of Christ.
The Western World, the last portion of earth in
which the eternal Gospel is to be preached before
the consummation, the land of the ignorant savage
and the uncivilized infidel, was the object of his
peculiar solicitude. He looked, as we know, to the

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ends of the earth for men powerful in word and work
to cultivate the desert, and we ourselves have felt
and acknowledged the justice of his selections.*
The strenuous promoter of Education, he che­
rished every institution that tended to diffuse its
light, and he conferred upon this country one of
its greatest blessings, the Order of the Présentation, for the religious education of the poor,..
The inheritor of the spirit of his predecessors, he
cherished the arts that humanise and exalt the
mind ; and he loved and honored the artist. At
the moment when he might have filled his treasury

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recently consecrated to the See of Charleston, U. S.

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by exactions from Trance, a pecuniary compensa­
tion for the plunder with which she had filled her
hands in Rome, he insisted solely on the restoration of the monuments of Art to their native home.
He claimed with no feeble voice the restoration of
-those sublime creations of the mind that have, like
so many golden treasures, poured over his country’s
name a flood of living glory, drawing from the ends
of the earth the children of genius to the temple of
the mighty dead, and the nations from every clime
to bend their way to the Eternal City, revered amid
its ruins, where was embodied so much that was
grand in history, so much that was sublime in art.
A city sovereign in its decay, surviving the
wreck and ruin even of temporal dominion, and
asserting nobly the immortality of mind, even on
the very tomb, where sleeps the mightiest nation
of the earth.
At length after exhibiting to the world the
bright example of every public and private virtue—·
beloved of all that ever looked upon him, and accessible to all that ever desired it, his hour came.
His warning was a painful accident, and he recog­
nised the voice of the one Eternal Priest commanding him to lay down the golden crown, and even
the breast-plate of Israel on which he had graven
the names of his people. That call he heard with
joy for he hailed its coming, and replied to it with

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30

tears, saying with the Apostle, (i I have fought the
good fight, I have finished my course, I have
preserved the faith,” and he passed away to his
rest and to his God for ever.
Peter dies, but the
priesthood is immortal.
Men pass away, offices
are transferred from one to another, but the one
fixed purpose of the Eternal mind is holding on its
high course with steadiness and magnificence—
one day wrapt in clouds and storms, the next
emerging in all the splendour of Heaven, with
light too brilliant for some to bear, to some a pillar
of fire in the pathless desert, to others a dark and
shapeless cloud concealing the path and the pro ­
gress of Israel. But amid all the variations of its
destiny and amid all the tossings and troubles of
this stormy scene, each succeeding day throwing
light on the past, and all things and occurrences
and characters are tending fast to one grand and
final consummation, which shall collect,combine and
crown the scattered portions of the system, which
shall vindicate before an assembled universe the
designs of God, and the purity and the efficiency
of the institutions by which these designs are
upheld and promoted.
And thou, Chair of Peter, destined pre-eminently
by God to uphold these designs of mercy, centre
of that unity which characterises all the operations
of God, both physical and moral, deluged by much

31

blood and shaken by so many storms from Nero to
Napoleon, post of so much honor, where so many
illustrious saints and sages have sat to judge the
people of God; post of so much danger,for 300years
of thy youth thou wert but the scaffold of death, and
he who rose upon thee had to brace his nerves and
burden his face how to look upon the rack, the gib­
bet and the blazing cauldron, for he knew he should
pour down upon thee the rich libation of a martyr’s
blood. In thy latter day still fated to be the object of
persecution for tyranny, and of calumny to falsehood.
Amid the damp and the gloom of dungeons unde­
cayed, in the wreck of empires undestroyed, aban­
doned by friends, upheld mysteriously by thine
enemies, thou art shorn of thy splendours to-day,
for the glory that rested on thee hath departed, and
the sainted priest that filled thee so nobly, hath
passed away amid the tears and the regret and the
admiration of the Christian world.
And as he judged thy people, oh God ! in mercy
and in love so do Thou in Thy mercy deal com­
passionately with him.
Be mindful, oh Lord, of
his faith and patience, of his meekness and his love.
Hear Thou, oh Lord, the voice of our supplication
in his behalf, or rather do thou, priest of the living
God, presiding at that altar, make heard the voice
of that Victim ci who even now intercedeth for us”
and pour out that mysterious blood which

32

£c speaketh better things than that of Abel,’5 that
so his soul may be this clay in peace and his abode

in Holy Sion.,

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Through Christ our Lord.—Amen.
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33

MEMOIR.
The Preacher of the Funeral Oration of Fius VII. was well
known in the south of Ireland, and his memory is still re­
verently cherished by those to whom eloquence is still dear, and
whose recollection^ still embraces the history of Cork. The
only complete specimen of that eloquence which was so much
admired by his cotemporaries is that which is now supplied to
the public. But as most of the rising generation would be glad
of gome slight memoir of him whose person they have never
seen, but of whom they have heard of often, we hasten to sup­
ply as far as we can, the deficiency.
Thomas O’Keeeye was a native of the northern parish of
this city, in which he was born in the year 1790. He was
baptized on the 31st of July in that year, by the Rev. Morto
Keane. He owed his education to the care of his mother, who
had him sent to the best schools the city could then afford. His
intelligence attracted the attention of the Rev. Robert
McCarthy, Vicar-General and intimate friend of the Bishop’
Dr. Moyean.
He, at that early age, having been too young for entrance
to Maynooth, resolved to accept the offer made him by a
master of a large establishment in the town of Fermoy to de­
vote a few hours in the day to the work of tuition, while he
should be at liberty to apply the remainder to purposes of
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self-improvement.
Such a proposition would not admi;. of
doubt, and the advantages were too evident to admit of rejec­
tion. There he remained some time pursuing his studies aid
storing his mind with knowledge, and after he attained a
proper age was recommended for admission to the College of
Maynooth. His admission dates there from the roll of the
College, at the year 180.·?, and he was ordained in the year

1814.
Immediately on his ordination he was appointed to the
curacy of Saints Peter and Paul’s, in the city of Cork, and
soon after, on the promotion of the Right Rev. Dr. Mîtuphï
to the See of his native City, the Rev. Thomas 0’Kee.fee was

appointed to the charge of that parish. At that time and for
some time after, the parish church was frequented by all the
leading Catholics of the city. The pastor of that church had
therefore opportunities of instructing the ignorant and ad­
monishing the erring in a manner that was in a great measure
such as no preacher in the city could desire. Very soon the
ardent words and conclusive arguments found their way to many
hearts, and a rich harvest of goodness began to show itself
among the public. The flippant arguments that were then in
use among a considerable number of young men were no
longer in vogue, and ceased to exercise an influence upon their
conduct.
Among the principal ways of instruction he made great use
of conferences or discussions on the essential truths of religion.
These he had carried on by two priests, of whom he invariably
was one. The priest who made the conference was stationed
in the pulpit, which all those who can remember the Carey’slane Chapel will not easily forget, and the Rev. Mr. O’Keetjfb
occupied a chair upon the altar. The subjects, which were not
of a controversial nature, were discussed in a familiar manner
between them, much to the edification of their audience. All
those who enjoyed the benefit of those conferences always

35
recalled them with much plea sure for many a year aftei’wards.
The writer of this has heard him say with what concern he
began his Lenten discussions, often not with a score of persons
in the chapel, and how in the course of a few nights, as he and
the Rev. Thomas England pursued their labours, the chapel
could not contain all who sought admission.
In the year 1828 a vacancy occurred in the parish of Upper
Glanmire, on the death of the Rev. Mb. Crowley, and the
Rev. Mr. O’Keeffe was appointed to it, and with a permission
to hold it in conjunction with Saints Peter and Paul’s. Soon
after another vacancy occurred on the death of the Very Rev.
Dean Collins, and he was appointed thereto with the dignity
of Archdeacon, which he retained for the rest of his life. On
being appointed to the South Parish he vacated all the other ap­
pointments which he had hitherto held, and he remained Parish
Priest of Saint Finbarr’s for the last eighteen years of his life.
He died in the month of April, in the year 1847, in the 57th
year of his age. He never put forth the varied power of his
earlier days ; though he often spoke effectively from the pulpit,
he never realized a discourse like that which is now presented
to the public. The only sermon which we have seen worthy
of his name is that of “ Scandal,” an extract from which has
found its way into some school books, and an extract from
the Sermon of “All Saints.”
Whatever became of his
discourses nothing whatever remains beyond one part of a
sermon on the Blessed Virgin, which is in his own writing, and
this is scarcely worthy of publication. His fame as a preacher,
as far as written words can go, must rest on the sermon which
now goes before the public. It was in reference to the
remarkable effect which this sermon produced on the audience
that a certain individual, long resident in Cork and now alive,
accosted the preacher when proceeding to the Sacristy: “I am
not, Rev. Sir, of your profession, yet I have been so enchanted
by your magnificent oration, that I have no other way of

univeratty Llbrartea of Notre Dame

0 0000 025 131 939

86

expressing my sentiments than by requesting your acceptance
of this ring, which I request you will wear in memory of this
occasion.” He presented him with a precious ring, adorned
with sapphires, which he took off his finger and put on that
of the preacher.
As a man he had rather a slight and spare figure and never
showed any signs of corpulency. He had an eye of singular
brilliancy, and had a dark and sallow complexion. He had an
elastic spring in his walk, which the large dress boots, then n ·'■
unusual to ecclesiastics, set off to advantage. His voice, which
varied little in modulation in his preaching, was singularly
slow and emphatic, making an impression upon his bearers as
a chisel would make on marble, so that the impression once
made became indelible. His conversation on ordinary topics
became agreeable and interesting, and his manner was kind
and affable to the most ordinary individuals. His kindness of
manner and his charity of disposition attracted numerous
friends, so that they esteemed his memory as sacred, and
cherished even the most trifling memorial of him as a thing
invaluable. Let us hope that a person so kind, so gifted, is
now enjoying a greater and more lasting' immortality than
any that awaits him upon earth.
His remains are interred in the church of Saint Finbarr’s.