Archbishop Seán Brady of the Armagh Archdiocese and Primate of All Ireland, spent several days in mid-August in Springfield on a pilgrimage, tracing his family's connection to the Springfield diocese and the Land of Lincoln.

{mosimage}The 115th successor to the See of St. Patrick came to visit St. Joseph Parish in Springfield, where his uncle, Father Hugh Brady, came in 1908 as a newly ordained, 24-year-old Irish priest. Father Brady was an assistant pastor for five years at St. Joseph, a growing parish of Irish immigrants on Springfield's north end. In 1913 Bishop James Ryan appointed Father Brady pastor at St. Ubaldus Church in New Douglas. During his third year at New Douglas, Father Brady contracted pneumonia, and he died on May 17, 1916 at the hospital in Litchfield. He was 32. His funeral was held at St. Joseph Church, with his body laid to rest in Calvary Cemetery.

Archbishop Brady presided at a concelebrated Mass at St. Joseph, on Aug. 14, the eve of the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The concelebrants were Bishop George J. Lucas, Msgr. Thomas Holinga, pastor at St. Joseph, and Fathers John Quinn and John O'Donnell, two of the archbishop's ordination classmates, who were traveling with him.

"Yesterday was a special day in my life," Archbishop Brady said during his homily. He had gone to Calvary Cemetery, to see where his uncle was buried, and pray at the gravesite. He recalled the words Pope John Paul II used in 1979, when the Holy Father made a personal pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock, in County Mayo, the day before he came to the United States for a visit, and to speak at the United Nations: "I have reached the goal of my pilgrimage."

At St. Joseph, Archbishop Brady examined parish baptismal records, with his uncle's signature on them. His uncle's experience at St. Joseph made a lasting impression on him and on his family, said Archbishop Brady. "When our family would pray the rosary together, we always ended with a prayer to St. Joseph - perhaps it was because of here at St. Joseph.

"I know it wasn't easy for those who came first to this land," he said. "But I'm quite sure their devotion to Mary helped them. The rosary was their favorite devotion."

While in Springfield the archbishop visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Museum, Blessed Sacrament Church and St. Joseph Church in Chatham, among other places.

Archbishop Brady and his classmates left Springfield as they had come, traveling on Amtrak. Their next stop was Milwaukee, where Archbishop Brady celebrated Mass in the Ampitheater at the Milwaukee Irish Fest.