Funeral of Francis McFarland

Funeral began with the offices for the dead.

1. Grand requiem mass began

• John Loughlin, celebrant
• James Hughes, assistant priest
• Father Lynch, deacon
• Lawrence Walsh, sub-deacon
• Father Kelly and Father Tierney, masters of ceremonies
• Chanters: Father Healy, James F. Campbell, and Peter M. Kennedy
• Cross bearer: Lawrence Walsh
• Book bearer: Cremmons
• Acolytes: A. Hearty and Peter M. Kennedy.
• Censer bearer: F. Goodwin
• Garafilia Mohalbi sang “Ave Maria.”
• J. Sullivan sang “Jesus Deus pacis” for the offertory.
• Thomas Hendricken gave the eulogy.

2. 12 bishops in addition to John Loughlin at the funeral, and they “occupied seats at each side of the altar, wearing rich robes of purple and black”.
3. There were 118 priests in attendance, and they occupied the front pews and were “attired in white robes”.
4. The church was “thronged with people” who maintained a “holy silence”.

Following the mass, a service of absolution was held.

A procession formed to escort the hearse to the Mount Saint Joseph Convent.  The procession included

• The visiting bishops and priests
• The Children of Mary
• The Sisters of Mercy
• The Sisters of Charity
• Saint Peter’s Band
• Saint Patrick’s Society
• Saint John’s society
• Saint Peter’s society
• McFarland’s relatives, riding in carriages
• A “great body of citizens”

The band played a dirge, and which point the procession headed to the Mount Saint Joseph Convent

1. The “libera, miserere and benedictus were sung”
2. John Loughlin took the lead
3. McFarland’s body was lowered into the vault.

The ceremony ended, and the crowd dispersed.

1. The hearse was drawn by “four black horse, and was surmounted by heavy plumes. There were twenty-eight hack loads of church dignitaries following it.”
2. The Courant estimated the crowd in attendance numbered in the “tens of thousands.”

1. The Courant described the early morning masses as “customary.”
2. The church was “heavily draped with the emblems of mourning.

1. There were some discrepancies in the schedule between today’s article in the Courant and the coverage of the funeral published tomorrow:

• Today: the early masses would be said until 9:00 AM, the “grand solemn pontifical requiem high mass” would begin at 10:00 AM. 
• Tomorrow: the offices for the dead began at 9:30 AM and “occupied three-quarters of an hour” and that the “grand requiem mass” began at the conclusion of the offices of the dead.

I’ve sided with the coverage of the funeral for the purposes of this entry.

2. Father Lynch, the deacon at the funeral, is thus far unidentified, but he appears to have been a priest at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Waterbury. He was not, as near as I can tell, John Lynch, the former priest at Saint Peter’s Catholic Church:  by this event, John Lynch had left Saint Peter’s to convalesce in Ireland following an injury, and while he might have been back from Ireland by this point he (probably) never returned to Hartford.
3. Father Kelly and Father Tierney were both from Stamford but are otherwise unidentified. Father Kelly was not Peter Kelly (or Kelley), formerly of Saint Peter’s Catholic Church in Hartford, as Peter Kelly had died in 1868.  Father Tierney was probably Michael Tierney.

Preparations for today’s funeral were underway yesterday.

1. Francis McFarland’s body remained on the catafalque overnight at Saint Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church.
2. The vault in front of the Mount Saint Joseph Convent had been finished.

Thomas Hendricken referred to McFarland as the “Bishop of Providence,” which McFarland hadn’t been, even though he’d lived in Providence as bishop until 1872.  Hendricken was, in fact, the first Bishop of Providence.

1. “Nothing could better testify to the great and exceeding regard in which this good man was held than the immense assemblage of people which di his memory honor.”
2. “The mellow sunlight of a glorious October day shone through the colored windows, and bathed the scene in an exuberance of melancholy color. The ‘dim religious light’ of the poet brooded over the scene, and rendered it strange and mystic.”
3. “In the course of the mass the choir rendered very beautiful and effective music.”
4. From Thomas Hendricken’s eulogy:

• “Born in difficult days, when to be virtuous was sufficient to be decently vicious, at a time when our people were scattered, pastors few and the faith dormant, when we who profess the faith were objects of bitter scorn, even of contempt, this priest of God entered his work unintimidated.”
• “In every great and good work the dead bishop’s correct eye, cool judgment, and masterly touch of hand were always apparent.”
• “Rank and wealth were not necessary to him. Paul in chains was a more glorious figure than Paul as an advocate or citizen!”
• “I have known him since the morning of his consecration and never detected in our frequent intercourse even the most venial fault.”

5. “Bishop Hendricken recounted the particulars of an interview which he had with him a few days before his death. He asked him if he was ready to die; and the reply was (in Latin) ‘I do not refuse to labor, but if it be the will of God, I am resigned to go.’  Just then a ray of sunlight illumined his features, and this, said the speaker, was a sign to me, that this submissive act had been received in heaven.”

1. The poet whose words “brooded over the scene” appears to have been Alaric Alexander Watts, and the line comes from “Egypt Unvisited. Suggested by Mr. Roberts’ Egyptian Sketches”:  “The poetry of earth is fading fast;/It hath no region it can call its own;/The dim, religious light of old that cast/Mysterious beauty on its haunts hath flown!”
2. John Loughlin was the bishop of Brooklyn, NY.
3. James Hughes was vicar general of the Diocese of Hartford and a priest at Saint Patrick’s Catholic Church.
4. Lawrence Walsh was pastor at Saint Peter’s Catholic Church.

Unattributed.  “An imposing funeral,” Hartford Daily Courant, October 16, 1874, page 2.

Unattributed.  “The late Bishop McFarland,” Hartford Daily Courant, October 14, 1874, page 2.

Unattributed.  “Bishop McFarland,” Hartford Daily Courant, October 15, 1874, page 2.