Bishop Flaget Contemplates the Sublime Beauty of Niagara Falls

Inside the mind of one of America's greatest leaders as he visits one of the landmarks of our country

Bishop Flaget, the beloved American Catholic patriarch, was on his way to Detroit where a treaty with the Indians was to be signed in August of 1818. While in the state of New York, he stopped to mediate on the wonderous Niagara Falls.

The following is his reflection, provided by The Centenary of Catholicity in Kentucky, formatted by us:

Horseshoe Falls, from Goat Island. Taken in 1911. Public Domain.

''These falls," he afterwards wrote, ''present the most grand and sublime spectacle which a mortal can contemplate on earth.

“No words can express the sensations produced on the soul by those torrents of water, forming a sheet nearly a mile wide, and falling perpendicularly one hundred and fifty feet."

“The rising vapors, while hiding from your view a portion of the cataract, cause to arise in the imagination ideas of a gulf, of an abyss, which fill you with a religious fear, and seize you with a feeling of solemn awe, never before felt.

“Until our arrival, the sun had been hidden by clouds, and it continued so for a time while we were devouring with our eyes a spectacle so astonishing; when lo! on a sudden, the solar rays pierced the clouds, causing us to enjoy the sight of numerous rainbows formed amidst the vapors ascending from the abyss.

Biddle Stair, Goat Island, Drawing From 1846

“The masses of water, falling into the depths below, rebound, boiling from the gulf; and you would believe that you saw, through the vapor, a river of milk flowing on to a great distance. It is impossible for the coldest soul not to become warmed at this sight of the wonder.”

“God is wonderful in the highest—great is the Lord, and exceedingly to be praised!

Image by Focused 001 on Flickr, 2022, CC-BY-ND 2.0

“Alas! (said I, to myself,) the torrents of grace, much more extended, and much more voluminous than this cataract of waters falling with so much force before my eyes, are flowing each instant into the hearts of men, and most of those hearts are not more penetrated by them than are the hard rocks upon which these waters fall!

“Is not this the case with my own heart? O God! do not permit this!"

Ice scenery. Taken in 1860. Public Domain.