Requiem Mass for Col. Charles Carroll

Requiem Mass for the Repose of the Soul of Col. Charles Carroll

(Col. Carroll died less than three months after his son, Albert . Colonel Carroll’s wife, Mary Digges Lee, had passed away only a few years earlier. The author makes oblique reference to the absence of the youngest son, Harper, who had left for Virginia to fight for the Confederacy. The writer does not mention the fact, but the announcement of Col. Carroll’s death was in the same issue of The Catholic Mirror as that of his relative, Lady Stafford of England, another granddaughter of Charles Carroll of Carrollton. It was Lady Stafford who had urged her grandfather to endow St. Charles College. St. Charles College was built on Carroll land in Howard County and conferred minor orders on priests. It would burn in 1911 and was removed to Catonsville. Harper took the Catholic Church to court to recover the land, as the will of Charles Carroll of Carrollton specified that if the Church ceased to use it, it would revert to the family.)

From The Catholic Mirror, December 27, 1862, p. 5. “Testis” is Latin for “witness”.

Messrs. Editors—One of the most solemn and imposing rites of the Catholic Church—the Requiem Mass—was celebrated on Tuesday, the 16^th inst., for the repose of the soul of the late lamented Col. Charles Carroll, of whose death your readers are doubtless cognizant, in the chapel attached to his country seat, Doughoregan Manor, Howard county, Md. The services were conducted by the reverend gentlemen and students connected with Charles College, the Rev. Mr. Dennis officiating as celebrant, assisted by the Rev. Messrs. Chapius and Rince as deacon and sub-deacon. The choir was composed of a select number of students under the direction of the Rev. Mr. Menu, and the creditable manner in which the sublime music of the Gregorian chant was sung, added much to the solemnity of the occasion. The worthy pastor of the congregation attending the chapel, the Rev. Mr. Griffin, made a brief, but impressive, discourse on the merits and character of the deceased, alluding, in a particular manner, to the munificence displayed by him in enlarging and beautifying this sacred edifice which will be a lasting monument of the zeal which he manifested for the glory of God and the cause of religion. The Mass was attended by the bereaved relatives, and by a large number of the deceased’s friends, who came to offer up their prayers, in union with those of the Church, and to pay this last tribute of affection to the memory of him who claimed the respect and esteem of all. In concluding this brief and incomplete description of this solemn and interesting ceremony, we sincerely condole with the members of this estimable family for the severe losses which they have recently sustained from the visitation of death, having been called upon, within a comparatively short period, to lament the demise of a mother, brother, and lastly of a much-loved father.

It might be supposed, Messrs. Editors, that, in this retired and thinly peopled portion of Maryland, the dire effects of the unnatural struggle, which is now decimating our unhappy country, would not be so keenly felt as in the crowded and populous city; but the absence of many a young and promising member from our humble congregation on Sundays, proves that, though removed from the active scenes of war, we are not exempt from its baneful influences. May the Most High, in the infinitude of His mercies, deign to hear the prayers of a suppliant people for the blessings of peace, and may the new year usher in a new era of happiness and prosperity for our country!

Respectfully yours,

TESTIS