quest, three Cuban gentlemen (Señors Lasala, Alfonso, and Garcia), advanced nineteen thousand dollars with which Christ Church, in Ann street, was purchased from the Episcopalians by Father Varela, and became the fourth Catholic church in the great metropolis. Bishop Du Bois appointed him pastor of this new parish.

Father Varela established schools for boys and girls, and became within the limits of his parish, and often also outside these limits, a true apostle of charity. This charity for the poor became a matter of praise and even of astonishment; and numberless anecdotes attesting its extent and character might be related which would almost be taken for pious legends. The poor and the sick were the principal objects of his affection and care. He went to them at all times, he gave them all that he possessed,—even the coat he had on, as he did on one occasion in winter, to a poor man who had been stripped in the street; and when the cholera was raging in New York in 1832, Father Varela may be said to have lived in the hospitals.

He established several sodalities and charitable associations in his church; organized a Sunday-school, in which he himself was the principal teacher, and established a library. It was then that he wrote a Catechism of Christian Doctrine, mentioned by Father Finotti in his Bibliographia Catholica Americana, several Catholic "Tracts" on Biblical subjects to counteract the "Tracts" of the Protestants, and his most interesting work, The Protestant's Abridger and Expositor, published by subscription, the purpose of which was to refute the weekly paper named The Protestant, which was then calling the Catholics “uncircumcised Philistines," representing their priests as impostors, and attacking every Catholic doctrine and institution.

In 1834, as Christ Church was pronounced no longer safe, Father Varela continued divine worship in a private house of the neighborhood temporarily fitted up for that purpose. In the following year a new church was begun, but on a different site, in James street, and Father Varela continued at its head until 1836.

The life of a Catholic priest in the United States was not at that time what it is to-day, and much less by far what it is in Cuba or other Catholic countries. That was a serious time of anti-Catholic agitation, of official prejudices, as well as of actual persecution. His Cartas à Elpidio show the many vexations, and sometimes insults, to which Father Varela was subjected in his visits to hospitals and asylums. That was the period of the destruction by incendiaries of the Ursuline Convent, Charlestown, of the anti-Catholic riots in Boston (when Father Varela happened to be present), and of the attempt to fire the Catholic Cathedral of New York. That was the period when such books as Louise, or The Canadian Nun;

Rebecca Reid's Six Months in a Convent; The Awful Disclosures by Maria Monk, and others, were making infamous charges and heaping calumnies and odium upon the heads of the Catholics. But Father Varela proved to be equal to the occasion. He was a man of great decision of character and of indomitable courage in the defence of truth. Archbishop Bayley says that "this slow but sure progress of the Church was not made without much opposition. The Rev. Dr. Varela, the Rev. Dr. Power, and the Rev. Mr. Schneller did good service;" and he praises particularly the articles that Father Varela published in answer to the attacks of the Protestants, and more especially of the celebrated Dr. Brownlee, of the Dutch Reformed Church.

It is stated that Father Varela was soon acknowledged to be a profound theologian, and the essay he published under the title: The Five Different Bibles Distributed and Sold by the American Bible Society, while one of the best papers ever written on the subject, unmasked that society and secured a great triumph for the cause of truth.

In an oral discussion with Dr. Brownlee, the latter, having nothing to say in reply to the formidable arguments of the learned priest, resorted to the expedient of announcing that the doctrines of Father Varela were not Catholic doctrines, and that his Bishop would at once disapprove and condemn them.

Father Varela took part in another controversy with the same Dr. Brownlee. One record of this discussion was printed in Philadelphia in 1833 under the title of The Religious Controversy between the Rev. Dr. W. C. Brownlee on the part of the Protestants, and the Rev. Drs. John Power, Thomas C. Levins and Felix Varela on the part of the Roman Catholics.

When the year 1836 came a new field was open to the activity and zeal of Father Varela. His record during the thirteen years he had spent in this country could scarcely be surpassed, yet it pales in comparison with his later labors.

The Catholic population of New York had enormously increased, but the pecuniary resources of the Church had not followed the same proportion. A new church was indispensable, but there were no means to build it. A financial crisis, one of those panics which from time to time make their appearance in the financial world, and bring utter prostration of business, had just been experienced, and rendered the work more burdensome. The new church, however, was the constant preoccupation of Father Varela, and God secured its erection.

Mr. John Delmonico, of New York, founder of the family of that name in the great metropolis, was one of the fervent admirers of Father Varela. One day when going through Chambers street,

on his way home, he happened to pass in front of a Presbyterian church, that was actually under the auctioneer's hammer. He took his stand among the bidders and succeeded in purchasing the building for $56,000. A portion of this price was paid down by him, and the rest was secured by mortgage on the property. Signor Delmonico had the deed executed to Felix O'Neil and others as trustees, but the instrument declares that the money had been supplied by Father Varela.

The new church property repaired and arranged was dedicated on the 31st of March, 1836, under the name of Church of the Transfiguration. The people always called it "Father Varela's church."

Father Varela was appointed to be its pastor, and for a time had as assistant the learned Italian priest, Father Mupietti.

The difficulties with which Father Varela had to struggle on account of the heavy debt of his church scarcely admit description. A learned economist might perhaps have condemned the whole undertaking as unbusiness-like and "injudicious;" but Father Varela trusted in something else than the precepts of political economy, and often said: "Never mind, go on, the sun shines for all without distinction."

The church does not exist to-day where it was. It was demolished after the death of Father Varela and transferred to Mott street, where it now stands. The memory of its first pastor is still preserved among the people of the parish with the greatest love and veneration.

One characteristic feature of the religious spirit of Father Varela was his constant effort to associate Catholic faith with happiness, cheerfulness, hopeful views, consolation, and encouragement.

"Bear always in mind," he said, "that prayers are made to bring us consolation, not torture." "True religion brings happiness, and history teaches that most of human miseries have resulted from the attempt to substitute for its everlasting principles others both doubtful and inconstant.”

It would be long to enter into any detailed account of all that Father Varela did between 1836, when he became the pastor of Transfiguration Church, and 1853, when he died. It suffices to say that nothing represents better the typical life of a good pastor than the life of Father Varela during this period of time. It was then when he displayed that extraordinary charity, zeal, and unbounded absolute self-denial which made him so conspicuous and universally loved and respected-when everything he had, his money, his watch, his spoons, his clothing, even the coverlets of his bed, which he on one occasion gave away through the window to avoid the scolding of the housekeeper, passed to the hands of the poor. It was then, also, that he founded what was

called the Half-Orphan Asylum, which he started with eight hundred dollars given him by a lady of his parish.

He wrote during this period many works, some of which have. been published, while others still remain in manuscript or have been lost. One of his papers on the" distribution of time, maxims for human intercourse, and religious practices," written in Spanish for one of his penitents, has been inserted in his Life. He wrote, also in Spanish, a very interesting book, under the title of Advertencia á los católicos, etc., specially intended to prevent Spaniards coming to the United States from becoming Protestants, and to warn them against heretical and infidel doctrines. This book was never printed.

He also wrote in Spanish Entretenimientos religiosos en la noche buena (never printed), and published two volumes of his remarkable work Cartas á Elpidió, bearing, the first on Infidelity and the second on Superstition. Both volumes were printed in Spanish in New York, the first in 1835 and the second in 1838. The first volume was reprinted in Madrid, where it was received with great favor. A third volume, on Fanaticism, has never been printed.

His dearly loved Cuba was never forgotten by Father Varela, who, in the midst of his numerous and overwhelming labors, always found the means to do something conducive to her benefit. He contributed to the Revista Bimestre Cubana, the best review ever published in the Spanish language, according to the authority of Quintana; he corresponded with the most distinguished and prominent men of Cuba at that period; he exhorted them to keep always in the right path; and when a philosophical discussion on Eclecticism and the then popular doctrines of Victor Cousin was carried to such an extreme in Cuba as to become one of the events of the period, Father Varela wrote his celebrated letter of October 22, 1840, which was read by all with admiration, and is still considered as a magnificent exhibition of sound doctrines blended with charity and patriotism.

In 1841 Father Varela undertook, in union with Doctor Charles Constantine Pise, the publication of a monthly magazine known as The Catholic Expositor. Its first number was issued in the month of April, 1841, and it continued for several years.

In the third Provincial Council, held at Baltimore, in April, 1837, Father Varela attended as procurator for New York.

In the same year he was appointed Vicar General of that diocese ; and when a coadjutor was proposed to Bishop Du Bois, in 1837, the name of Father Varela was mentioned for that position. He never worked as hard as he did on this occasion to prevent his appointment.

In 1841 the Faculty of Theology of St. Mary's College, of Bal

timore, conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Theology; and in 1846 he attended another Provincial Council which met at Baltimore, and whose inaugural session was held on the 10th of May. He went as theologian to Bishop Hughes.

A life of constant work and self-denial, attending sick-calls at all hours, day and night, in every description of weather, always on foot, and never well protected-continued assiduity, and voluntary deprivation of all comfort, and even of the most necessary things -that watching when all sleep, as he said in one of his letters to a friend in Havana-with incessant mental activity, could terminate in but one result. Father Varela's health was undermined and ruined; and in 1846 he found himself prostrated, and unable to do the slightest work. He used to say, with a pleasant cheerful smile, half in jest and half in earnest, that he had three or four diseases at the same time, all struggling to break him down.

At this time some friends in New York carried him to Florida, to the city of St. Augustine. The genial climate of the land of Ponce de Leon, its sea-breezes, its tropical atmosphere, benefited the great priest. He was forced to remain there by the injunctions of his prelate and the requests of his friends; but in July, 1849, he thought he had recovered sufficiently to come back to his parish. He was mistaken, however; as soon as the winter set in he was disabled. He could neither lie down, nor assume a recumbent position. It seems that his lungs were gone.

His friends hurried him back again to St. Augustine; and there, after two more long years of suffering, he died in the month of February, 1853.

When the sad news of his death reached New York, a feeling of consternation prevailed among the Catholics. It seemed as if they had lost their best friend and protector.

The Freeman's Journal of March 12, 1853, published an account of his death, with the letter of Father Stephen Sheridan announcing it, and explaining its circumstances.

The feeling in Florida, among whose people he had lived for about seven years, was so full of love and admiration as to render impossible the transportation of Father Varela's remains, either to Cuba or to New York. The opposition of the people was so great, when either project was discussed, that a riot was feared, and they had to be abandoned.

Father Finotti says in a letter, written by him to the author of this article in 1875: "Nowhere will his labors be more appreciated than in the United States. His name is now a household word with our clergy." We shall say in our turn that his name is also a household word with every one who feels love and admiration for real greatness, superior intellect, and Christian virtues.

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