Clerical Changes

The Tuam Herald, Saturday, August 21, 1920.

Clerical Changes

Rev. James Heaney, C.C., Irishtown, to be C.C. Knock, and Rev. Michael O'Connor, C.C. Knock, to be C.C. Irishtown.

Death of Canon Canton, P.P., Athenry

We regret to record the lamented death of Canon Canton, the popular parish priest of Athenry, which occurred at the Parochial residence on the feast of the Assumption. The deceased was born in Castlebar, where so many priests came from. He was educated at St. Jarlath's and some forty years ago was curate in Tuam and universally liked. He was appointed P.P. of Ballinkill, but Canon MacAndrew who was there and who by the way was another Castlebar man, not wishing to leave his Connemara home for Athenry, he exchanged with Canon Canton and returned to Letterfrack. Since then Canon Canton has laboured in Athenry and has left many enduring monuments of his zeal and love for the beautification of the House of God. He got the fine gates from an adjoining demesne at Tysquin and erected them at the entrance to the church which he also adorned internally with many improvements. He got an Order of Nuns to reside and teach in Athenry and never ceased doing work. The funeral on Wednesday testified to the general esteeem in which he was held by all classes and creeds in town and country. He was a skilled musician and a beautiful and accurate chanter of the psalms. He had a beautiful voice. In consequence at great festivals he always led the clerical choir and as a mark of his skill he was appointed Precantor of the Cathedral choir and Canon of the Diocese.

His Grace the Archbishop presided at the Solemn Requiem Mass for the late Canon Canton at Athenry on Tuesday, and his Lordship Most Rev. Dr. O'Dea, Bishop of Galway, and about 50 priests were present in the choir.

The celebrant of this Mass was Rev. E. J. McGough, C.C. Athenry; deacon, Rev. John Greally, P.P., Abbey; sub—deacon, Rev. Ml. Daly, S.T.L., Diocesan Inspector; master of ceremonies, Rev. Thomas Lynch, C.C., Athenry.

Speaking at Canon Canton's obsequies the Archbishop said:

I feel sure I am voicing the sentiments of all the priests here present when I say that in the death of Canon Canton the Archdioceses of Tuam has lost a most zealous, a most edifying and a most accomplished priest. To you the people of Athenry we offer our most sincere sympathy on the departure of a pastor whom you all revered for his priestly character, and in your name and in the name of the prests we tender our heartfelt condolence to his repected sisters in their great bereavement.

Canon Canton, was born in Castlebar on April 5th, 1850. Educated first at St. Jarlath's College and afterwards at the Irish College, Paris, he was ordained Priest by Archbishop McHale in Tuam Cathedral on 8th November, 1874.

For the next two years he was professor in St. Jarlath's. In 1876 he was appointed C.C. of Menlough from which mission he was transferred to Cong in the following July. From Cong he came to the town of Tuam in Feb., 1876, where he labored for the next twelve years. In June, 1890, he was appointed P.P. of Ballinakill and from this parish he was transferred to the Pastoral Charge of Athenry in January, 1891. He became a member of the Tuam Chapter in 1893.

For twenty—nine years then he was your pastor. You were the daily witnesses of his zeal, his piety, his fatherly kindness, and there is not personally known to the "Canon" as you called him who does not feel his loss as a personal sorrow. His lot was cast in troubled times, but the Canon was always a priest first. He had not a turn for politics but you all felt that he was always a true friend and a safe adviser. He was always most sensitive when the good name of Athenry was at stake, and it is a remarkable thing that at the present moment when the clouds are thicker than they were perhaps ever before, I don't know any part of the country where the people manifest greater sanity and commonsense than they do in this old historic town.

Your pastor is indeed gone from you but he has left his parish in perfect order and his people full of zeal for God's glory and of Christian charity. In giving an account of his stewardship the Canon will be able, I think, to point to a flock remarkable for faith, for piety, and for a spirit of order. When a priest comes to die after doing his work with the zeal and success that characterized Canon Canton's administration, death can have no terror for him; to him reward may not be given immediately; though the office of the priest is a most exalted one, his responsibilities are great and he will have to render a very strict account and perchance have to pass through the cleaning fires of Purgatory.

You realise this and therefore my dear people I feel certain that you will pray often and pray earnestly that God will remit any temporal punishment that may be due and bring to the happiness of the beatified vision the good pastor who was so invaluable part of your lives for more than a quarter of a century.

The funeral took place after mass to the Boyhill Cemetery about half a mile from Athenry. The Archbishop and Bishop, in their purple robes, and the surprised priests headed the cortege, chanting the "Miserere" and "De Profundis". The Archbishop performed the last rites at the graveside.

Religious Reception

Miss D. Concannon, N.T., has been received in the Presentation Convent, Oranmore, under the name of Sr. M. Ita. Her new name has been a happy selection, as St. Ita is one of the great Saints of our own dear land, being herself a nun, and rightly styled the "Brigid of Munster". In her famous convent of Ceall Ita, now known as Killeady, was nurtured young Brendan of Clonfert, who later on visited Jarlath at Cluainfois, and predicted that the latter was to remove eastward and found his See at Tuam—da—guallan, where the wheel of his chariot would break and where many would arise in glory along with him. Sr. Angela, another sister of the above young religious, is also in the Novitiate with Sr. Ita. We wish them both many happy and peaceful years in religious life.