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the Resurrection, which he ended with the words spoken on the cross: It is consummated. They were his last to his congregation. He then sought his bed, from which he arose only to a life of eternal glory.
The news of his fatal illness spread rapidly and his faithful flock was tilled with consternation. The nearest priests, Father Lemke from St. Joseph's, Father Bradley from Newry, and Father Heyden from Bedford, were hastily summoned, and were with him at the end. “My will,” he said, “is made. I trust as far as that is concerned I can depart in peace, that no one will lose anything through me, that there may even be something over. Now, I wish first of all to receive the last Sacraments, and then do with me as you will.” As soon as midnight had passed Father Lemke said mass in the sick room, all the household being present, and gave him Holy Communion.
So he lay there resting until the evening of the 6th of May, between six and seven o'clock. When the hour came for the laborers to go home from their work, they saw that he was going also. Father Heyden read the prayers for the dying, the room door was opened, the crowd in the house and adjoining chapel prayed with tears and sobs. In a few minutes, without any perceptible sign, all was over; the heavens were open, all their joy-bells were ringing a welcome peal; he had gone home to his own country.
The funeral was set for Saturday, May 9th. By that time, notwithstanding the bad roads and the fact that no invitations or public announcement were given, the entire population for fifty miles around had gathered in Loretto. It was but a few steps from the chapel to the church, and the only direction in regard to the funeral which Father Gallitzin himself had given, was that he might be laid between the two, where he had passed a thousand times from his house to the alter, and where his children gone before would be around him. But as so many contended for the honor of bearing him to the church, and then to his last resting place, it was decided that the procession should pass through the village and
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