The Burning of the Cathedral.
--The last number of the
Catholic Miscellany, in alluding to the destruction of the magnificent Cathedral of St. Finbar, says:
‘
We have neither the heart to write of it nor the words adequate to express the feelings we share, in common with others, at its loss.
The prevailing sentiment was disclosed in the tears of many who beheld unmoved the destruction of their own home steads, but wept bitterly when they saw the
Cathedral spire wrap in flames.
Amidst all the havoc wrought by the devouring flames in this noble edifice, there yet stands, almost undefaced, on the chancel wall the image of St. Finbar, one of its patron saints, looking calmly down on the smoking ruins beneath his feet ! A happy augury, we trust, that the building, sacred to his name, is to rise majestically once more from its ashes ? And may none of us have cause, like the Israelites of old, to exclaim in weeping, that the glory of the second temple is not like that of the first.
’