Brother Aidan's Extracts

BERNARD JOSEPH, BROTHER (MURPHY, WILLIAM)

Brother Bernard Joseph -- William Murphy. Died January 28th, 1873. This Brother was devoted, energetic, and a good teacher. He startedthe school at Lafayette after he had been director at Baltimore. He visited Ireland and brought back some Postulants. On his way back to Lafayette via Chicago, he slept in a cold room in January, got pleurisy and died in that city, fortified by the last Sacraments. He was about 35 years old. 1873

"Brother Bernard, 29, Prefect of Studies and teacher. A good Brother, devoted, pious, one of the best." SORIN MEMO

"Died on January 28. Brother Bernard Joseph, so long and favorably known to our readers as an eminently successful teacher and fervent religious; his unexpected death filled us all with regret. Very Reverend Father General, in a circular announcing the death of this excellent religious says:

'You will all be painfully surprised to hear of the death of our dear Brother Bernard Joseph. Since he returned from Ireland with his 17 postulants, he had enjoyed excellent health. When he left here on Tuesday evening, the 21st instant, he seemed better than ever. But is appears he suffered from cold in the cars between here and Chicago; there he contracted the beginning of a pleurisy which, in spite of the best medical aid, proved fatal on the following Tuesday night. During his illness, first, with the excellent family of J. Scanlon, Esq., and then with the Sisters of Charity in St. Joseph's Hospital, he received all the helps of our Holy Faith, and died the msot edifying death, in the arms of his own dear Brother Joseph . . . " SCHOLASTIC, February 8, 1873, See "Fort Wayne", 1864

"You will all be painfully surprised to hear of the death of our dear Brother Bernard Joseph. Since he returned from Ireland, with 17 postulants he had enjoyed excellent health. When he left here on Tuesday evening, the 21st instant, he seemed to be better than ever. But it appears he suffered from the cold in the cars between South Bend and Chicago, and contracted the beginning of pleurisy which, in spite of the best medical aid, proved fatal on the following Tuesday night. During his sickness -- he received all the helps of our Holy Faith, and died a most edifying death in the arms of his own dear Brother Joseph, who had been sent from here on the Monday previous . . .

"In the death of Brother Bernard Joseph, the Congregation loses one of its most faithful and devoted members. No one will feel more keenly than myself the sad and unexpected intelligence. I now convey, with a special request to offer immediately in his behalf all the suffrages secured to him by the Rules.

"He was born in Ireland, A.D. 1827; received the habit here in 1853, and made his profession in 1855 on the 15th of August" Circular Letter, January 31, 1873, Edward Sorin; See "Tuition -- Brother Bernard -- Sorin")