Page:Historical account of Lisbon college.djvu/127

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LISBON COLLEGE.
117

death. In his last illness he was heard to declare that nothing gave him so much concern as the thought that his relatives were strangers to that faith from which, in his dying hour, he received so much consolation. After the death of Colegate the Rev. Thomas Hurst, in addition to the other duties with which he was already charged, undertook to fill the vacant offices of Master and Prefect. The Rev. Edmund Winstanley being still engaged in missionary duty among the British troops did not then, though residing in the College, hold any office.

On the re-establishment of peace in 1814, the Superiors began to take measures for the gradual closing of the Academy and the restoration of the College to the original purpose of its foundation. The same year eleven new students for the Church arrived from England and commenced their Course of Humanities, on the conclusion of the Peninsular War in 1815. The British army having been recalled, Winstanley was again inscribed amongst the regular Superiors of the House. On the feast of SS. Peter and Paul, June 29, of this year, solemn High Mass with elaborate music, the first time for four years, was celebrated on the occasion of the reopening of the church after the improvements and alterations which had been made. The College Church had always enjoyed the reputation of being the worst and the meanest in the city, and in 1814 had fallen into such a wretched state, as to become even dangerous to those who frequented it for religious purposes. The first thought of Father Buckley, after peace had been restored, was to put the church into a fitting state of repair and render it more becoming the purpose for which it was erected, and in this he was seconded by Father Hurst who, at that time, was the only other Superior. An entirely new roof was placed upon it, the old altars replaced by those at present existing, a wooden floor succeeded to the old tiles, and the walls and ceiling were beautifully adorned. The handsome doors now seen at the entrance, and the rails dividing off the centre of the church, the movable throne and canopy for exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, and