Excerpt from Souvenir of Loretto Centenary: October 10, 1899 The following work is simply what its title indicates, - a Souvenir of the Centenary of this parish, the oldest in Western Pennsylvania. It makes no pretence to originality, but is merely a compilation of papers, facts, names and dates, which show forth the progress made during the century just closed, and furnish valuable and interesting data for the future historian of the church in this diocese. Even as a compilation it is far from perfect, for its matter was collected and arranged during the hours that could be spared from a busy pastoral life; and many items, well worthy of being recorded, have been passed without notice, and others, herein noted, have been inadequately treated. Such as it is, however, it is offered to the public in the hope that whatever measure of success it may meet with may stimulate other pastors to diligently gather, and to preserve in permanent and easily accessible form, the records of their respective parishes, and to collect the fragments of parochial history, lest they be forever lost. Such work will be appreciated in future years. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.