01/02/2022
Priests' Square
PRIESTS’ SQUARE
This grouping of priests’ burials is located just to northeast in front of the Shader Mausoleum. There are ten priests buried in three rows this area with markers ranging in date from 1875 to 1946. Described here are six of them:
Rev. Winand Hubert Aretz (1882-1929) was born in Aix-la-Chapelle, Rhineland, Germany, and came to Arkansas in 1904. Two years later he was ordained a priest in The Cathedral of St. Andrew by Rt. Rev. Bishop John B. Morris of the Diocese of Little Rock. He was the first priest ordained by the bishop. Aretz held many important positions including Vicar General. He had served as secretary to Bishop Morris and Assistant Rector of the Cathedral of St. Andrew until 1910 when he was appointed Diocese Chancellor. He was appointed head of the newly established theological seminary of St. John. Under his leadership enrollment increased from seven to eighty. In 1923 he was notified that Pope Pius XI had made him a Domestic Prelate, and in 1924 he was made Vicar General of the Diocese. He was president of the Catholic Publication Society and had been deeply interested in The Guardian since its foundation in 1910.
Rev. Patrick Enright (1867-1917), born in Limerick, Ireland, was ordained in Mobile, Alabama in 1891, was pastor of the Cathedral of St. Andrew and Vicar General of the Diocese of Little Rock. He was elevated to Monsignor in 1915 and celebrated his silver jubilee in 1916.
His marker is a 6-foot-tall headstone of gray granite engraved with a central cross and two diamond shapes on either side of the cross. The diamond shapes are engraved. one with a chalice and host, and the other with a lamb, cross and flag emblem. The upper corners have engraved ivy and oak leaves. The inscription reads “Rt. Rev. Mgr. Patrick Enright Born in Abbeyfeale County Limerick , Ireland April 28, 1867, Died in Hot Springs April 10, 1917, Pray For Him”.
His obituary described him as “the most beloved prelate”. He was a graduate of the Royal University of Ireland and St. Mary’s Seminary in Maryland. He served in Mobile before coming to Arkansas. In addition to his early service at the Cathedral, he served in northwest Arkansas, then held the Rectorship of the Cathedral in 1899, then was Diocese Administrator and papal delegate, then Vicar General. He served as chaplain to the Religious Sisters of Mercy. and in 1914 he began his pastorship at St. Joseph’s Church in Pine Bluff. In 1915, Pope Benedict XV bestowed on him the title of Monsignor.
Rev. James S. O’Kean (b. about 1837 d. 1875) was the first burial in this area. This burial is marked with a simple rectangular granite grass marker engraved in block letters. Father O’Kean was a pioneer priest in Arkansas. Born in Ireland , he had come from Memphis to Pocahontas where there were three Catholics at the time. The mission church of north Arkansas had been dedicated by Rt. Rev. Bishop Edward Fitzgerald in 1868. Under Father O’Kean’s leadership the congregation grew to 100 made up mostly of converts. He was so highly regarded that the local community raised money to build the St. Paul’s church building in 1868. The congregation was referred to as a German one in the newspaper story about the new church’s opening in 1904.
Rev. O’Kean died in Little Rock at age 38 according to burial records of the Cemetery as hand-written on page 11 of Liber Mortuorum et in Calvariae or Catholic Burials in Little Rock, Arkansas 1871-1907 is:
The record reads:
O'Kean, James
Age: 38
Color: White
Single
Occupation: Cath. Priest
Place of Birth: Ireland
Place of Death: Little Rock
Date of Death: July 28, 1875
Cause of Death: Congestion Burial Place: Calvary
The Irish missionary priest, Father O’Kean, had electrified locals with his “fiery preaching,” but his tenure as pastor was short, as he was then named rector of the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Little Rock in 1871. He also served as a chaplain in the Confederate Army.
There is a community named O’Kean which was settled before the Civil War, named for this priest who frequently stopped in the community en route to nearby Pocahontas. With the construction of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway in the 1870s, O’Kean expanded rapidly. A railroad tie manufacturing operation was among the businesses established in the city during the period. The town of O’Kean incorporated in 1913.
Rev. Monsignor Thomas Veale Tobin (1863- 1924) was ordained a priest in the Cathedral at Nashville, Tennessee, on May 20, 1891, and received his first assignment at the Cathedral in Nashville. It was there that he met Bishop Morris who was then Vicar-General of the Diocese of Nashville. Later Tobin was appointed pastor of St. Peter and Paul's Church, Chattanooga, Tennessee.
In 1911 he resigned his pastorate in Chattanooga, and upon the invitation of Bishop Morris, came to Little Rock and was immediately appointed rector of St. Andrew's Cathedral. He served at the Cathedral for eleven years as rector. On May 28, 1916, the twenty-fifth anniversary of his ordination Father Tobin was elevated to Domestic Prelate and received the Purple Robes and the title of Monsignor. On Passion Sunday, April 2, 1922, because of failing health, he resigned as rector of St. Andrew's Cathedral, assuming the Chaplaincy of St. Vincent's Infirmary of Little Rock. Monsignor Tobin died at St. Vincent's Infirmary on Friday, January 28, 1924, after a very short illness, and the funeral services were held at the Cathedral, Bishop Morris officiating at the Solemn Pontifical Requiem Mass, assisted by the priests of the diocese.
Following the death of Monsignor Enright, the Right Reverend Monsignor Thomas V. Tobin, D. D. was appointed to the rectorship of the Cathedral by Bishop Morris.
The immensely popular and highly regarded Tobin was eulogized in the Southern Guardian with a detailed and comprehensive history of his life and works, a description of the Pontifical requiem mass, and tributes from numerous friends and colleagues including Governor Thomas C. McRae, Mayor of Little Rock Ben Brickhouse, presidents of all Little Rock area banking institutions, pastors of local churches and synagogues, Postmaster James Ginocchio, federal and municipal judges.
The Right Reverend Monsignor Herman H. Wernke (1888-1946) Rt. Rev. Monsignor Herman H. Wernke served as pastor of Our Lady of Good Counsel Church of Little Rock for twenty-five years.
A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, he received his early education at St. Gregory's Preparatory Seminary and received his classical training at St. Xavier's College. From there he came to Little Rock in September of 1912 as a diocesan student and took the theological course at St. John's Seminary under the late Right Reverend Monsignor W. H. Aretz, S. T. D., P. A. He was ordained to the priesthood in St. Andrew's Cathedral by his Excellency, the Most Reverend John B. Morris, D. D., on December 19, 1914. He celebrated his first solemn Mass on Christmas Day in his parish at Cincinnati, Ohio. Within a few days he returned to Little Rock where episcopal assignment located him at the bishop’s house as secretary to the Most Reverend Bishop, assistant to the later Right Reverend Monsignor Thomas V. Tobin, and chaplain at St. Vincent's Infirmary.
With the interruption of the World War, when he was chaplain at Fort Roots, he continued in this work until August 1920, when he became pastor of the parish of Our Lady of Good Counsel parish.
After serving seven years as pastor, Monsignor Wernke was elevated to the rank of domestic Prelate by His Holiness, the late Holy Father, Pope Pius XI, on December 17, 1927, and was invested in the robes of a Right Reverend Monsignor by His Excellency, Most Reverend John B. Morris, D. D., on February 15, 1928, in the Immaculate Conception Church at Fort Smith, Arkansas.
The twenty-fifth anniversary of Monsignor Wernke's ordination to the priesthood was solemnly celebrated by the school children on December 19, 1939. His four brothers and their families, and a large gathering of the clergy and parishioners were present at the Mass celebrated by Monsignor in the presence of Most Reverend John B. Morris, D. D., Most Reverend Albert L. Fletcher, D. D., Auxiliary Bishop, and Right Reverend Paul Nahlen, O. S. B., Abbot of Subiaco Abbey, Subiaco, Arkansas. His brother was Rev. Anthony J. Wernke (1902-1929) also buried in the Priests’ Square. Rev. Anthony Wernke died at age 27. He had been brought to the area by his brother and was ordained in 1927. He was a graduate of St. John’s Theological Seminary and Little Rock College and served as a missionary in the state, traveling around by car, and served also in Jonesboro and Hot Springs.
Burials in Priests’ Square area:
1 Reilly, Rev. Thomas J. 1845-1883
2 Enright, Patrick Rev. 1867-1917
3 O’Kean, James S. 1837- 1875
4 Ucker, Rev. Edward J. 1889-1916
5 McGrath, James J. Rev. 1884-1921
6 Tobin, Rev. Thomas V. 1869-1924
7 Wernke, Rev. Anthony J. 1902 -929
8 Wernke, Rev. Herman H. 1888-1946
9 Fisher, Rev. John Patrick 1892-1933
10 Aretz, Rt. Rev. Msgr. W.H. 1882-1929
