A file of copy letters from Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, to Fr. Cornelius Hyland OFM Cap. mainly re administrative, financial and personnel matters in the California mission. A letter (19 January 1942) reprints a tribute article to Fr. Camillus Killian OFM Cap., an Irish Capuchin missionary in the United States, and to the late Br. Anthony McDonnell OFM Cap.
The letter reads:
'The following appreciation from the pen of the editor, Mr. Frank Geary, appeared in the Irish Independent of December 15th :-
"There are many heavy hearts amongst the members of the congregation of Church Street to-day, for a beloved Capuchin has gone to his eternal reward. Father Camillus was a true son of St. Francis, a great priest, and a fine type of Irishman. His passing will evoke regret, not only in Dublin where he was so well known, but throughout the greater part of the country, where he is still remembered as a leading missioner.
"Three score and ten winters had snowed his hair; the hardships of more than a decade of years as a pioneer in the mission fields of the wilds of Oregon had taken the buoyancy from his step and enfeebled his limbs, but they were powerless to leave even a dent on his great, big, kindly heart. He suffered much, but he suffered without murmur. He did his priestly work and smiled at his suffering.
"He had that wonderful gift of making friends and keeping them—keeping them with bands of steel encased in fine gold. The poor and the lowly, the sick and the sorrowful will miss him most. They sought him and found him to halve their griefs and to share their joys. The public wards of the city hospitals knew well his halting steps, and they will miss his kindly smile, his gentle words of consolation. In the back streets and the tenements, at all hours of the day and night, and in all weathers, he was a familiar figure; in the limelight—never.
"He loved His Maker; he loved the Brown Habit of St. Francis; he loved his fellow-man. May the good God rest his gentle soul."
