Assumption of Our Lady in 1844, still surviving hoary with
long years of priestly labor, Rev. Sylvester Malone and Rev. George
McCloskey. But the weightier and important duties connected with the
administration are unrecorded. The most Rev. Archbishop of Baltimore in
his funeral sermon on Cardinal McCloskey said truly: "The life of the
Cardinal has never been written and never can be. And this is true of
every Catholic prelate. He can never have his Boswell. The biographer
may relate his public and official acts. He may recount the churches he
erected, the schools he opened, the institutions of charity and religion
which he established; the priests he ordained, the sermons he preached,
the sacraments he administered, the laborious visitations he made, but
he can know nothing of the private and inner life which is 'hidden with
Christ in God.' That is manifest to God's recording angel only. The
biographer knows nothing of the bishop's secret and confidential
relations with his clergy and people, and even with many who are alien
to his faith. He is the daily depository of their cares and anxieties,
of their troubles and afflictions, of their trials and temptations. They
come to him for counsel in doubt, for spiritual and even temporal
assistance. Were a bishop's real life in its outward and inward fulness
published, it would be more interesting than a novel."

Even with the aid of so untiring a coadjutor as Dr. McCloskey, Bishop
Hughes found the diocese too large to be administered with the care that
all portions required. When the Sixth Provincial Council convened at
Baltimore, in May, 1846, which he attended with his coadjutor, he urged
a division of his diocese, the necessity of which Bishop McCloskey could
attest. New Sees were proposed at Albany and Buffalo. Pius IX., yielding
to the request of the Fathers of the Council of Baltimore, erected the
dioceses of Albany and Buffalo. Bishop McCloskey was translated from the
See of Axiere to that of Albany, and the diocese committed to his care
comprised the portion of New York State north of the forty-second
degree, and lying east of Cayuga, Tompkins and Tioga counties.

He took possession of his diocese early in the summer, making St. Mary's
his pro-cathedral, till the erection of his cathedral, of which he laid
the corner-stone soon after his arrival. A visitation of his diocese
followed, and then began the work of developing the Catholic interests
in the portion of the