1844. At Holy Cross College as chaplain. 1845.-At Georgetown College, Professor of Dogmatic Theology and Hebrew up to June, 1846. In August of this year he was located at St. Joseph's church, Philadelphia, where on the eighteenth of that month he baptized Michael Donnelly. Father Barbelin was pastor, and another of his assistants, beside Balfe, was Rev. Augustine McMullen. On September 29, 1847, the Doctor made his last entry on the church records there; he was called thence to Georgetown College as Professor of Moral Theology, having also in 1848 charge of the little mission of Laurel Ridge, in Prince George county, Md., which at that time was attended from Georgetown. In 1848 he was again sent to St. Joseph's as assistant to Father Barbelin, who still was pastor, and it was here and at this time he left the Jesuits. The reasons for his going from their midst were known probably only to himself and the superior, who granted him leave to withdraw, and so the Doctor parted with what was dearest to his heart. A letter from one of the Jesuits, who gives the author some data relating to this event, says: "The generation to which he belonged has passed away and few of us know that he ever belonged to us. Fr. Jordan is almost the only one who was in the province when he left it. Fr. Francis McAtee was a novice when Dr. Balfe entered, and, if I am not greatly mistaken, was also (previous to his joining the Society) a student at the old Philadelphia Seminary."

Georgetown was then the House of Studies for the Jesuit scholastics, and Dr. Balfe must have been a man of recognized abilities in theology to have so soon been appointed to the position of professor. He had made an excellent course at Rome, and all the best theologians of our country acknowledged the Doctor's rare ability, but he had then little experience as a teacher. He was accustomed to read an author in class (Sardagna was the text-book) without making any comment. This of course was not lecturing. Besides, he would run over twenty pages or more in a lesson, which was too much for the students to digest. So they determined to make him teach. Accordingly the Italians, who had lately arrived,

and who had been accustomed to a different system, as soon as the Doctor had read a page, began to ply him with questions; on this he would close the book and answer the various difficulties perfectly, like a master; then he would start to read again ;—and again would be proposed other difficulties-these, too, he would answer, until in time the drilling he underwent succeeded in developing him into a satisfactory professor. Among his scholars were several well known in after years in Philadelphia, such as Fathers Ward, Blenkinsop, Maguire, Duddy, John McGuigan, Early, King, Paresce, Finotti, Ciampi, and others.

From a letter written to his sister Helena (Sister M. Gertrude) we glean the motive which inspired his leaving the Society of Jesus, of which order of ecclesiastics he was such an admirer from time long before his ordination. He gave as his reasons, first, that he realized that his ageing parents required some assistance at his hands; that his health was so poor, that their life of strict rule was too hard to endure; that he had left the Society with perfect good feeling, and that they had promised to receive him again if he should ever desire to return. It was at the same time (1843) at which Dr. Balfe entered the Society, that his dear friend Dr. O'Connor (late Bishop of Pittsburg) intended also to enter. They were both filled with a desire to become associated with that devoted and learned Society. This longing finally resulted in the latter entering the novitiate in 1860. Dr. Balfe never left the secular priesthood again, but in his heart and mind, he always held to his love for his old-time religious companions.

1849.-Dr. Balfe always suffered from hemorrhages of the lungs, and it has been said, the weakness resulting from these attacks was the prime cause of his leaving the Society of Jesus. The life of such strict rule was hard to endure, and so leaving the order, in March, 1849, he was sent by Bishop Kenrick to Columbia, Pa., where he made his first entry in the Records of Baptisms on April 15. Here he found the small church originally built by Father Keenan in 1828, altogether too small to accommodate the increased con

ST. PETER'S CHURCH, COLUMBIA. BUILT IN 1828

gregation

In

and his first thought was to remedy this. 1850 he added to the church, making it twice its original length, and out of the small salary, which he allowed himself, he gave the first subscription thereto, in amount, fifty dollars; and so well did he succeed that on October 27th (Sunday) the enlarged church was dedicated. He also purchased the first organ for the church on December 6, 1850. Heretofore the choir had sung to wind and string instruments, and that old organ still remains in the church. He also placed the first insurance on the church property at St. Peter's, and as an evidence of his careful and strict administration of business in his parish accounts, I can state upon personal inspection, that he even had the "penny collections," taken up during the several Masses, carefully counted, and entered on the books; nor would he allow any of the money so received to be used until it was so entered. So just was this great model of priestly virtues, whose great faith was as strong, as his life was pure. Doctor Balfe was a gentle, true, and charitable man, loving God above all things, and his neighbor better than himself; for of himself he thought little. Deeply did the people feel their loss, when in February, 1851, he was recalled and in the following March sent as assistant to St. John's church, Philadelphia, where he succeeded his brother, Henry, as assistant for the second time. We find from the church registers that on the fourteenth of that month (1851) he baptized Joseph Gegan, Father Sourin, being pastor, and Rev. R. V. O'Connor, another assistant. Here he remained until October, 1852, on the tenth of which month hedis last entry in the Registers. He was then appointed

ssst nt to. Father Loughran at St. Michael's church,

on October 24, 1852, he recorded the baptism of John Dugan. He remained here until June, 1853, on the fifth of which month he baptized John James Rogers, when Bishop Neumann, who so greatly appreciated his virtue and talents, called him to the seminary, as professor, where he remained until 1860. His health, always poor, was already breaking

* See

"St. Peter's Church, Columbia," by F. X. Reuss in RECORDS A. C. H. Society, vol. iv, p. 90.