A REDEMPTORIST MISSIONARY "I WOULD not have become a priest had I lived in Europe, for I never had or could have any strong attrait for sacerdotal functions.

But I felt that the Church in America was in need of all the help that could be given by her children for the work of the priesthood." Father Hecker said this when near his end, and a full knowledge of his character bore him out in it.

The sacerdotal, the ecclesiastical, were qualities which he had assumed with full consciousness of their sanctity, yet they united with his other characteristics in a way to leave traces of the point of contact.

He was certainly an edifying priest, and to hear his Mass was to be spiritually elevated by his joyous fervor.

But you would never say of him "he is a thorough ecclesiastic, he is a typical priest." The external aids of religion he imparted with a reverence which displayed his faith in his priestly character as a dispenser of the sacramental mysteries of God.