RAPHAEL, BROTHER (James C. Maloy -- died May 21, 1921)
"Brother Raphael of the Scholasticate (Scholastic) printing office has set up an ingenious piece of clockwork in the composing room. He has constructed a clock on the plan of the famous 'cuckoo' but instead of the musical bird, two miniature figures emerge from a little hut on top of the time piece -- Fr. Time and Mortal Man -- and the graybeard, holding his scythe in one hand, counts off the hours with the other. The clock has attracted much attention and has brought frequent visitors to the press office at the noon hour to see the long count. On a scroll above the clock is the phrase: 'Remember, man, that thou art dust and into dust shalt thou return."'
-- Scholastic, 50:140 1916.
"The quiet exit of Brother Raphael and with him the passing of the Notre Dame G.A.R. Post casts a softly solemn shadow over Memorial Day. It foreshadows the Memorial Day not far distant when the last wrinkled veteran is mustered out of the Grand Army and the epic struggles of the Civil War will have become a tradition with the tender echoes of the bugle gently dying over the veteran's grave a radiant chapter in the history of Notre Dame was closed, With him went the last living link to vitalize the memory of the University in the Rebellion. We know the story of Father Corby and Father Cooney now only by bronze tablets and history pages. And for that the death of Brother Raphael is doubly significant. It marks the last of an illustrious nobility and it was the departure of a nobleman.
"His service in defense of the nation and in honor of God is not singularly conspicuous, but is all the more splendid for that. There was no deed in his career to distinguish him because his whole life was a background of distinguished conduct. Serving in a Pennsylvania regiment that passed through most of the blood-clotted fields from Manassas to Gettysburg and the Wilderness, Brother Raphael was one of those charmed romancers whose miraculous fortune is so common that it came to be considered commonplace. He has no thrilling exploits to add glamour to his name and while the enchantment that protected him in the midst of death may seem supernatural, it can never be known as spectacular. His charmed life may have been the charm of religion....He was the genial Brother who always vouchsafed a pleasant manner and was a generous soul in the interest of his friends.
"Brother Raphael, who was James Maloy, came from Homer, Pennsylvania; he first saw the light of day on October 24, 1840. After the War he felt the call to the religious state more and more distinctly with the passing years, until on May 15, 1879, he joined the Congregation of Holy Cross. Two years after he was professed. All his remaining years were spent at Notre Dame in the 'Ave Maria' press room. He had singular mechanical talent and many of the improvements on the presses were of his conception. His departure leaves a bleak spot in the memory of Notre Dame men and death will elicit the appreciation for his life and charity that was forgotten while the genial glow of his personality was felt."
Scholastic. 54:488 , W. Murphy 1921.