PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

settlement. During the first years of their residence in this district, the people attended mass at Vernon River. In due time a church was built, and the parish is now known as St. Teresa’s.

In the eastern part of the Island Catholic settlements continued to grow. The coun- try around Souris was being opened up and Bishop Macdonald was not slow in realizing that the time had arrived when a Catholic church should also be erected in that locality. Prior to that time the Catholics living to the north and east of Souris attended divine ser- vice at East Point church, while those of Souris proper went to Rollo Bay church, the distance not being very great. The erection of a church in Souris was entrusted to the Reverend John Macdonald, who quickly or- ganized the people for this purpose, pur- chased the necessary site, and in a short time had the work of construction fairly under way. The first offering of the Holy Sacri- fice in the new church was by Father John in the year 1839. Ten years later the good people of Souris were destined to see their church, and also a new parochial house built by the Rev. Pius MacPhee, reduced to ashes. A calamity of this kind was not easily over- come, especially when the struggling circum- stances of the people are considered, but the parishioners of Souris soon set about replac- ing their loss, and in a comparatively short time erected their second church. In the westem sections of the Island religious en- ergy went on apace. Father Perry had been for upwards of ten years the principal mis- sionary in that part of the Island, where his labours were blessed with excellent re- sults.

The need of a sufl‘icient number of clergymen to give the desired attention to the different missions was keenly realized

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by Bishop Macdonald. In his first pastoral to the clergy and laity he emphasizes the im- portance of having young men study for the priesthood, so that every possible facility might be afforded the faithful for complying with their religious duties, and that there might be assured to the diocese a continuous, succession of clergy. For this purpose be exhorts each parish to do all in its power to- wards the education of some one of its young men and thus provide the diocese with a suf- ficient number of missionary labourers. Thus he expresses his feelings on the diffi- culties of the situation: “The spiritual wants or rather utter destitution of many flourishing places throughout the diocese, because of the fewness of the clergy, the re- moteness of the churches, the sparseness of the flocks, the consequent hardships to which many of you are day and night exposed, and our inability to apply suitable remedies, are subjects of deep concern to us at the begin- ning of our episcopate. But, while we have to lament on this sad order of things, we would earnestly exhort you to strenuously impress on the minds of your respective flocks the pressing necessity and obligation for each of them to contribute according to his means to provide for a succession of‘ clergy. However well certain churches may be served at the moment, it cannot insure them against the casualities which produce a vacancy, and if no means be taken to edu- cate and form by proper discipline 3 body of diocesan clergy to supply those vacancies as they occur, what must be the conse— quence ?” .

That these earnest words of the good bishop did not go unheeded may be seen from the fact that along in the early ’4os and the years following, the ranks of the clergy were being gradually filled up. The