PAUL THE HERMIT, BROTHER (John O'Connell)
"This Brother was lame and consequently unfit for hard labor. He worked on the farm and was held as a good religious. Being confined to the Infirmary for some days, he died suddenly while moving his bed, aged 45. He died January 14th, 1875.:
-- Granger Memo.
"Father Chartier wrote from St. Peter's: 'Brother Antoine left, but place taken same week by a young man from New York, 23 years old, named O'Connell, frank, good disposition, reads well, aptitude for study, poor like others, has established his study in the gallery, so as to keep an eye around; going to teach arithmetic, wants to make them masters of the sciences, which is esteemed without contradiction the most useful science in this materialistic country. I think that your English teacher knows the art of swelling up a prospectus by bombastic and high sounding works. However, like yourself, I feel that education at South Bend will require other teaching than around St. Peter's."
"We regret to announce the death of Brother Paul who died quite suddenly last Thursday morning at one o'clock, aged (35 yrs??). He had been slightly ailing the day before, but no one thought that his illness was serious. It was a great shock to his Brothers in Religion when in the morning they learned that his illness had been fatal. Brother Paul was a good, pious, hardworking religious and his death is a serious loss to the Congregation of Holy Cross. He was buried on the feast of St. Paul the First Hermit, whose name he bore in religion. May his soul rest in peace."
-- Scholastic. January 16, 1875.