The Rev. James B. Donegan, pastor of the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Marlboro, Mass., died on February 26. Father Donegan was one of the best known priests in New England. He was born in County Longford, Ireland, about forty-eight years ago. He received his clerical education at All Hallows' College, Dublin. He came to America some twenty years ago, and had served as curate in Taunton, and in the Cathedral and St. James Church, Boston. Deceased went to Marlboro in April, 1876, and he had resided there ever since, having served on the Board of School Committee for about nine years, filling this position at the time of his death. Father Donegan was a zealous priest, and was beloved by all who knew him. He was an ardent advocate of the cause of Ireland. The funeral services were held on Monday, March 1, at his late pastorate in Marlboro, and were attended by the archbishop, large numbers of the Rev. clergy, and by a large congregation. The remains were interred in the cemetery at Marlboro. May he rest in peace!
BROTHERS.
On Tuesday, February 23d, there passed through Philadelphia, en route for Montreal, Canada, the body of the Rev. Brother Stanislaus, who died at the Christian Brothers' Normal School, Ammendale, Md., on the 18th of February. Although but thirty-three years of age, Brother Stanislaus had filled into this small compass the deeds of a long life. Born in Montreal, he possessed the characteristic activity and intellectual grasp of the Northern mind. Much mental labor shattered his never overstrong constitution. Brother Stanislaus was quite an adept in the field of literature; as a teacher he had no compeer in Canada; he was, in addition to these, an expert geologist, having made a thorough study of the science while directing the scientific department of the Brothers' Academy, Quebec. He is a great loss to the Canadian Province, as he filled for the last three years the position of Inspector-General of the Schools.
Benoit Robert, or Brother Facile, the founder of the Christian Brothers' schools in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans, and other cities in this country, died in Marseilles on April 2, 1877. He desired to be buried in the land in which he had labored so long and well. After the lapse of nine years his desire is to be complied with. His body will arrive on the next French steamer, and a permit for its transfer to Amawalk, Westchester County, New York State, has been obtained. Brother Facile lacked but a fortnight of being seventy-seven years of age when he died. He was born in Cublize, France, and became a Brother before he attained his majority. He came to America in 1848. He was a friend and assistant of Archbishop Hughes.
Brother John Augustine Grace, who died at the Christian Brothers' Novitiate, Marino, Clontarf, Ire., on January 25th, in his 86th year and the sixty-third of his religious profession, was one of the foremost educators of the century. He entered the congregation of the Christian Brothers, founded in Ireland by his eminent countryman, Edmund Ignatius Rice, at Waterford, in 1823. Thenceforth, throughout his long life, he filled many important positions in the various Houses of the Brotherhood in Ireland and England, everywhere inculcating in the minds of his young charges an unswerving devotion to the cause of Ireland and the Church. Among his eminent friends may be named Daniel O'Connell, Father Mathew, G. Griffin, Lord O'Hagan, Dr. Murray, Dr. MacHale, the two Irish Cardinals, as well as the most gifted of the patriotic spirits that gave our country so great a name from 1843 to 1848.
SISTER.
The first member of the Community of the Sisters of the Holy Family of San Francisco, Cal., has gone to her reward. Sister Mary Magdalen Javett died at the Day Home on Hayes Street, on the 28th ult., of consumption, to which she had been a martyr for many months. The deceased Religious was a native of Ireland, and came from a family notable for its practical Catholic faith. From her earliest years she was always deeply devoted to her religious duties, and was among the first five novices received into the Order by Very Rev. J. Prendergast, its founder.