History

St. Laurence O'Toole as Archbishop of Dublin, 1161 to 1180. He worked hard for meaningful reform in the Irish Church, and for a peaceful settlement to the strife arising from the vendettas of Dermot McMurrogh of Leinster, the incompetence of High King Rory O'Connor, the aggressions of Richard de Clare ("Strongbow") and the imperial ambitions of Henry II of England.

The good Archbishop's efforts for peace were often rewarded by temporary success, but never by lasting peace. He was able, for example, to negotiate a settlement in 1169, that must have seemed marvelously succesful at the moment it was signed. High King O'Connor agreed to tolerate the return of McMurroh, and in return McMurrogh agreed publicly to acknowledge O'Connor's overlordship and privately to send Strongbow and his dangerous Anglo-Norman and Welsh merecnaries back home. It was a brilliant diplomatic accomplishment, brought to nothing by McMurrogh's compulsively treacherous nature. He did not send his mercenaries home. Instead, he marched on Dublin. When St. Laurence and the Dubliners refused to break their faith with the High King, Strongbow's men conquered Dublin in McMurrogh's name in 1170.

St. Laurence O'Toole then engaged a three-pronged strategy for addressing the national crisis. One prong was very public and spiritual. He persuaded a synod of Irish bishops that, perhaps, this national crisis was an expression of divine justice, since some Irishmen had purchased English slaves from traders, robbers and pirates. The synod commanded in God's name that all English slaves in Ireland should immediately be released.

The second prong of St. Laurence's strategy was public and diplomatic. Dermot McMurrogh having died (to the regret of very few), and Strongbow having become his son-in-law and heir to his pretensions, St. Laurence suggested that one basis for peace might be for the High King to recognize Strongbow as King of Leinster, and for the Strongbow in return to do homage to the High King. Negotiations along these lines were proceeding even as High King O'Connor approached Dublin with a formidable army.

In the aftermath of Richard de Clare's astonishing victory, King Hery II himself came to Dublin, partly just to put de Clare in his place. King Henry was willing to restore de Clare's title of Earl of Pembroke, and was willing to let him acquire the new title of Lord of Leinster, but he was unwilling to let de Clare get away with calling himself a king. De Clare suitably abased himself before King Henry, who took direct control of Dublin, Waterford and Wexford.

To this new reality, Archbishop O'Toole had to adjust. He agreed to join the Archbishops of Cashel and Tuam and the Papal Legate, the Bishop of Lismore, in a general council of the Irish Church (the octogenerarian Archbishop of Armagh was unable to participate). This council enacted the sort of reform legislation for which St. Laurence had been hoping for some time. It must be admitted that the council also sent Pope Alexander III a report on the state of the Irish Church which seems unduly harsh. It is possible that St. Laurene his brother bishops really did see the humilating failure of Irish resistance as a divine judgement, requiring urgent and even vehement reform the Irish Church.

Whether or not he was somewhat demoralized, St. Laurence had an intense sense of responsiblity for his people, and that sense of responsibility led to resume his work for peace. This work was rewarded with a considerable success when King Henry II and High King O'Connor agreed to the Treaty of Windsor in 1175. The signing of the treaty was a great event, but ultimately meaningless. King Henry II was every bit as compulsively treacherous as McMurrogh had been, but much better at it. No treaty signed by him was worth the price of the ink. St. Laurence thought he had accomplished a settlement that would lead to the eventual reintegration of Dublin and Leinster with the rest of Ireland. What actually followed was the partition of Ireland into two utterly different legal and political systems. The treaty accomplished nothing. With King Henry's cynical blessing, Anglo-Norman agression against the Irish continued unabated. One expression of this agression was the fact that Dublin's Archbishop had to die in exile, leaving his body to the Church of Our Lady at Eu, in Normandy.

St. Laurence O'Toole, Abbot of Glendalough and then Archbishop of Dublin, was a man of tremendous personal integrity and holiness of life, the first Irishman to be cannonized by the Church through the full canonical process. His life inspired people to write many legends of uncertain reliability. What is certain is that he was the leading figure of the Irish Church in his day. He accomplished the nearly unprecedented feat of rallying the Irish hierarchy to a common plan of action. Desiring only to be a spiritual leader, he found himself forced to take the role of statesman, simply because he was the only man in Ireland capable of doing it. While he did unite the Irish hierarchy, not even St. Laurence O'Toole was able to unite Ireland's many petty kings. St. Laurence hoped to rally the country behind High King O'Connor, and present a united front to the dangerous empire builder who sat on England's throne, but he hoped in vain. Rory O'Connor was simply not an inspiring figure, and too many of the petty kings and chiefs saw their immediate selfish interests better served by making a deal with King Henry.

In the end, St. Laurence's true success was in the spiritual realm. He was a great apostle who helped many Christians get to Heaven, our true and final homeland. Success in even the most meritorious worldly endeavors has not been guaranteed to us by the Lord Jesus, Whose Kingdom is not of this world. Blessed Theresa of Calcutta said that "God has not asked us to be succesful. He has asked us to be faithful." To be faithful is, finally, the only permanent success.

Laramie Wyoming was settled in 1868 and legally founded in 1869. At that time the only priest in Wyoming Territory was Fr. William Kelly in Cheyenne. He came on the train to Laramie once a week, to celebrate Holy Mass and hear confessions. On July 12, 1869, he was joined by Bishop O'Gorman of Omaha, who administered the Sacrament of Confirmation. Laramie had no Catholic church or resident priest until 1872.

Fr. Cusson worked with truly apostolic zeal, but he did not consider his efforts succesful. When he left Laramie in 1879, he left his note in the back of the Baptismal Register: "Although I have given several famliles and adult Catholics in this report, it may be remarked that many of them are not by any means practical members of the Church, or may be known as nominal Catholics. This is especially true as far as the stations and military posts are concerned. Then again, the number of Catholics in the military forts varies from time to time inasmuch as they are liable to be changed occasionally or perhaps deserted altogether. Others there are who are absent from the practices of our holy Religion, being inluenced by temporal or worldly motives."

The second Pastor, Fr. Hugh Cummiskey, was born at Tonawanda, Pennsylvania, August 15, 1854. Ordained a priest on November 2, 1877, he was only 24 years old when he came to Laramie as pastor, in late February, 1879. He would serve as pastor in Laramie for the next 41 years. Bishop O'Gorman of Omaha told the very young priest that the Parish in Laramie had proven very troublesome, but would certainly improve with time. With that somewhat uncertain encouragement, Fr. Cummiskey headed to Laramie.

Fr. Cummiskey was a very young man. He was also a big fellow and not unduly fearful of physical confrontations. The very first night he spent in Laramie a couple of rowdies broke down his front door and attempted to enter his house. Fr. Cummiskey gave them a fight. Since he was bigger than they were, and much more sober, they got very much the worst of the encounter. The next day the word in town was that one of them was going to shoot him if he didn't get out of Laramie. Fr. Cummiskey was not the type to take kindly to theats. "I provided myself with the means of self-defense and gave due notice of my intentions", he recalled, many years later. The rowdies did not try to tangle with an armed Hugh Cummiskey. Big, brave and kind of rough - maybe that was the exactly the sort of priest Laramie needed in 1879.

As a priest he was sometimes required "to make long and disagreeable journeys to attend the dying". On one occasion, early in his pastorate, he had to travel six days through bitter winter weather, the temperature falling to 20 degress below zero (Farenheit) His escort was one of the Younger Brothers, once a train robber with Jesse James. The man was a fugitive from justice but, recalled Fr. Comiskey, "he was very gentlemanly and kind to me. In fact, I was glad to have him with me, for one night we were followed by several grizzly bears, and bears with an appetite too."

Young Father Cummiskey and some of his parishioners had an extremely serious disagreement about Clan na Gael. Fr. Cummiskey regarded thought that this Irish nationalist organization was insufficiently loyal to the United States of America, inadquately obedient to ecclesiastical authority, and too willing to endorse terrorist tactics in Ireland. Insufficiently obedient to his authority they certainly were, persisting in Laramie despite repeated denunciations from the Altar. In 1883, after a few years of escalating tensions, Clan na Gael in Laramie came literally blows with Hugh Cummiskey and his friends. Clan na Gael, it was recalled in later years, "came to an end in a grand free for all." That would have been interesting to see. This experience, by the way, left Fr. Cummiskey with a deep-seated distrust of organizations with even the slightest hint of secrecy. Down to the end of his long pastorate (1920) he refused, for example, to allow the Knights of Columbus to organize at St. Laurence O'Toole Parish.

During the 1890's Fr. Cummiskey had to deal with the activities of "The American Protective Association". The A.P.A. was hostile to immigrants and to Catholics, with a special hatred for the Irish. On May 15, 1895, the A.P.A. attacked St. Laurence O'Toole Church, vandalized the building and dared to desecrate the Most Blessed Sacrament. They were able to do this because the local police, in the name of preserving public order, kept anyone from interfering. Needless to say, Fr. Cummiskey was utterly furious, and let the whole town know that next Sunday's sermon was going to be about the evil and stupidity of A.P.A. Hearing this, the A.P.A. let Fr. Cummiskey know that were going to be in church that day, and he had better be careful what he said. He was not careful what he said. "Well,", he recalled, "I had something to say, and I said it. Some weak-kneed Catholics thought my language was too strong, and they feared it would bring vengeance on the Catholics of the town. Did it? By no means! The church was never again disturbed by the pests." Apparently, Fr. Comiskey let them know that if they wanted to play rough he and his people would get rough, and they had better consider whether they really wanted that. The non-Catholic president of the newly founded University of Wyoming attended Mass that Sunday, to show his support for the Catholics and his contempt for the A.P.A. and its toys on the police force. He was delighted by Fr. Cummiseky's talk, and laughed when he said that it seemed to him the A.P.A. was scared to death. Apparently it was. They never again attempted any physical assaults.

The next elections gave Laramie a better city government, and the policeman who organized police support for the A.P.A. attack was dismissed. He found new employment as the head of security at a silver mine in Leadville, Colorado. While patrolling the mine, he fell into a mine shaft and broke his neck. It has to be admitted that Fr. Cummiskey brought the man's demise to the attention of the town of Laramie with truly Old Testament glee. (I'm not sure I can wholeheartedly blame him - JS)

From the recollections of the pioneer generation, it is not clear that Fr. Cummiskey's flock loved him, exactly. He was a bit too prone to make people's public failings the topic of his Sunday sermons. They certainly did respect him. He was a man that people took seriously: brave, tough and hard working. In his youth people took him seriously partly because he was so big and powerful. In his old age they took him seriously for the better reason that they knew he had served God and His Church faithfully and fearlessly for many years in sometimes difficult circumstances. When he died on October 3, 1920 (of a ruptured appendix) the whole city of Laramie, irrespective of creed, honored him as one of the city's most remarkable and admirable pioneers.

John T. Nicholson was acutely aware of both his family and his Irish heritage. The Nicholsons had come to County Sligo from the Scots Hebrides Isles after the battle of Culloden (16 April, 1746), where they had fought on the losing side against the rising "British Empire". Opposition to an English dominated "United Kingdom" was practically in his blood. He grew up during a time of great political ferment in Ireland, and was an ardent supporter of Home Rule for Ireland. He found himself torn between his sense of religious vocation and his political commitment, but ultimately the sacred calling prevailed. He asked to join the Diocese of Galveston, Texas, and his request was granted. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1897, and came to Galveston, the Queen City of Texas in those days.

In 1900 Fr. Nicholson became the Pastor of St. Patrick's, one of Galveson't four parishes. He was not destined to be pastor for long. On September 8, 1900, Galveston was entirely destroyed by the worst hurricane in American history. Though Fr. Nicholson was one of the survivors, his parish church was washed away, along with hundreds of his parishioners. In the aftermath of the hurricane, Fr. Nicholson suffered his first attack of Malaria. Though he eventually recovered, he would be prey to frequent illness for the rest of his life. Though Galveston eventually recovered, the diocesan seat was moved to Houston, where Fr. Gallinger became Rector of Sacred Heart Cathedral, on November 6, 1901. During the next 12 years, he founded a high school and became increasingly obsessed with Irish poltics. His high school was remarkable, with a curriculum that centered around learning languages: Latin, Greek, and Irish. Increasingly, however, he was distracted by the situation in Ireland.

In May of 1914 John T. Nicholson turned up in Ireland, first in Dublin, then in Sligo, and then back across the country again to Dublin. His time in Dublin coincided with a visit from Roger Casement, then engaged in gun-running for Irish nationalists. Whether or not Fr. Nicholson met with Casement, it is certain that in July, 1914, he met with John Devoy of the Irish Republican Brotherhood in Philadelphia. It is nearly certain that he also visited the German embassy in Washington D.C.

Once World War I broke out, Ambassador Bernstorff was in cable communication with Roger Casement. Ambassador Bernstorff did not know that the British Secret Service was reading his cables. One cable is of particular interest: "Reverend John T. Nicholson, of Philadelphia, is on sick leave now (did the Bishop of Galveston know what his priest on sick leave was up to? - JS), and ready to start. First available vessel sails for the Netherlands December 18. Arranging to have Italian and Swiss passports. Is in every way qualified. Speaks Irish well. Has visited Germany and is full sympathy with the work we want done"

That work was not going well. Roger Casement was trying to persuade Irishmen in the British Army, who had been captured by the Germans, to join an "Irish Legion" armed and sponsored the Imperial German Government. Casement was not a natural leader of men, and was having very little success. The arrival of Fr. Nicholson gave a temporary boost to Casement's always precarious morale. He praised Fr. Nicholson's "American buoyancy" and "undiminished enthusiasm". Enthusiasm was not enough. Very few of the Irish prisoners were interested in serving the interests of the Second Reich. In July 1915 Fr. Nicholson returned to Philadelphia, to work with the Irish Clan na Gael (which Fr. Cummiskey had driven out of Laramie! - JS)

At that point, John T. Nicholson seems to have recalled that he was, first and foremost a priest. He decided to return to priestly duty but not to Houston, where he suspected the Bishop was quite annoyed with him. He knew that an old friend of his from seminary days, Patrick A. McGovern, had recently become Bishop of Cheyenne, Wyoming. Bishop McGovern was agreeable, and in January 1916 Fr. Nicholson became Pastor of Corpus Christi Parish, in Buffalo, Wyoming (a place so far off the beaten track in those days that I doubt even the British Secret Service could have found him - JS)

In January, 1921, Bishop McGovern made Fr. Nicholson pastor of St. Laurence O'Toole Parish in Laramie, and Vicar-General of the Diocese of Cheyenne. It is interesting to note that the legal detail of being officially dismissed from the Diocese of Galveston-Houston and officially received into the Diocese of Cheyenne was not attended to until November of 1923.

By the time Fr. Nicholson arrived in Laramie, the city had 6,300 inhabitants, enough of them Catholic that the old frontier church no longer sufficed. Fr. Nicholson roused his 200 families for the task of building a new church, with a seating capacity of 400 (400 THIN people - JS) The present chuch of St. Laurence O'Toole was built at a total cost of $80,000 and dedicated on June 6, 1926.

During his time of ministry at St. Laurence O'Toole Parish, Fr. Nicholson admitted the Knights of Columbus, dramatically increased the number of children attending catechism classes and vastly improved the quality of their instruction, and founded a Newman Club for the spiritual and social welfare of Catholic Students attending the University of Wyoming.

After 14 years of devoted service in Laramie, the Very Reverend John T. Nicholson died on February 7, 1935. He had invested early in the Hometake Gold Mine, of Lead, South Dakota, and was able, despite the Depression, to leave $20,000 for the higher education of the children of poor families. He also left some money to "the men who volunteered for the Irish Brigade in Limburg, Germany, and remained true to the principle of Irish independence" To the end of his days, he denied that the efforts of Roger Casement and the rebels of 1916 had really been failures. He considered them instrumental for "removing Ireland from the status of an English province and restoring her to the region of international politics"

Fr. Nicholson is better remembered for his interest in education, however, than for his politics. A generation of Catholic youth in Laramie was inspired to succeed by Fr. Nicholson to succeed in higher education. One of these youth, John Joseph Hickey, was his most faithful altar server, walking through bitter cold many mornings to serve at Holy Mass. During his teen-age years, John Hickey was encouraged by Fr. Nicholson to get good grades, study many languages, become good at debate, and go to law school John Joseph Hickey followed every bit of that advice, and eventually became Governor of the State of Wyoming, and a Senator of the United States of America.