FUNERAL OF JOHN HOGAN - Feb. 24, 1913

On February 21, 1913, John Joseph Hogan, first Bishop of Kansas City and St. Joseph, died at the parish house where he had lived for decades. According to his wishes, no elaborate homily was preached at the funeral:

The Cathedral was filled to capacity for the funeral Mass, Monday, February 24, and hundreds of mourners stood outside. Bishops, Abbots, and priests filled the sanctuary. He had directed that no sermon be preached; Archbishop Glennon offered the simple summary: 

This request of Bishop Hogan will be faithfully carried out. He directed wisely for there is no necessity for a funeral sermon. The souls he saved, the friends he made, the dioceses over which he presided, the cathedrals he built, the priests he ordained, the words he spoke, the life he lived, speak more eloquently than words put together in a sermon. He has gone to the Great Silence and silence on our part can be tribute. Though he commanded silence, we can join in prayers for him; we can do this within his request.

After a solemn funeral at the Cathedral he had built, the cortege wound through the less populated streets of Kansas City to St. Mary's Cemetery on East 23rd Street. The most graphic account of the graveside service came from an article with no byline in the Kansas City Journal, Feb. 25:

SIMPLICITY MARKS PRELATE’S FUNERAL: 

Bishop Hogan’s Wishes Duly Observed in Rites for Dead Churchman.

The pale winter sun gave no warmth to offset the chill and searching wind, yet a great concourse of 2,000 men and women, many with uncovered heads, stood quietly as with upraised hands Bishop Lillis blessed the grave of the Rt. Rev. John Joseph Hogan, first bishop of Kansas City, in Mount St. Mary’s cemetery shortly after noon yesterday.

A great man, tired out after a long lifetime of right-doing, was laid to rest. The silent prayers of the multitude went up for him.

The clods thudded dully on the coffin lid. The long shadow of the cross on the priests’ lot fell athwart the grave. The worn out body of Bishop Hogan was cradled for its last and lasting slumber.

Silently Archbishop Glennon, Bishop Lillis and the other prelates of the Catholic church went to the waiting carriages. The coaches drew away with a crunch of gravel. Then the multitude started to depart, its members murmuring softly one to another til the whispering filled the clear air like a benediction.

The old grave digger filled in more earth, then shouldered his shovel and he, too, went away. The new-made and tenanted grave in the priests’ lot kept company with those seven others, where were laid the bodies of priests who had gone before.

Hogan's grave is surrounded by those of "his brother priests," several of them relatives of his.

From the vantage point of the knoll where his grave lies one can see in the distance the much-changed skyline of Kansas City.