^8 l-^f^ of The 



He considered it impossible that the congregation 

 of St. Mary's in Chicago could at that time pay the 

 debt upon, and finish their church, and therefore 

 he and his brother having united their funds, paid it 

 with their own private means. His generous-hearted 

 flock followed this noble example. The city was 

 divided into districts; proper collectors were ap- 

 pointed; and so harmoniously and successfully did 

 they labour, that in about a year they had the 

 happiness of kneeling before the new altar in their 

 finished church, whose glittering spire and golden 

 cross reflect the first rays of the morning sun, as 

 it rises out of the bosom of the broad and beautiful 

 Lake Michigan. 



This was the first, and at that time the only 

 steeple in Chicago; and its cross, the emblem of 

 man's salvation, perched upon the summit of that 

 steeple, is the first object that presents itself to the 

 traveller approaching the harbour from the lakes, 

 or far away upon the prairie, as his eye rests upon the 

 "city of the plain." But it is no longer the only one : 

 for several beautiful steeples and spires now adorn 

 the different churches; yet of all these, St. Mary's 

 (true to her heavenly origin) is the only one that is 

 not ashamed to rear on high that sign which will be 

 the sign of victory — of the triumph of the Son of 

 man, when he comes in the clouds of heaven to 

 judge the world! 



Previous to the erection of the new see of Chicago, 

 the greater part of the state of Illinois had been 

 under the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of 



