The Greatest of the High Angels

Seraphin Maximus… his mother named him after the highest order of angels and tacked on Maximus perhaps in the hope that he would be the greatest among them.  The name seems to have been popular at the time, evoking fire and a keen strenght; for me it brings to mind giant beings standing guard for God, the image forever in my mind of the Angel picture that the younger Seraphim had in one of the bedrooms of the King homestead in Chazy Lake.  Perhaps Marie-Eugenie hoped her son would become a human Seraphin as described by St. Thomas Aquinas:

“The name ‘Seraphim’ does not come from charity only, but from the excess of charity, expressed by the word ardor or fire. Hence Dionysius (Coel. Hier. vii) expounds the name ‘Seraphim’ according to the properties of fire, containing an excess of heat. Now in fire we may consider three things.

“First, the movement which is upwards and continuous. This signifies that they are borne inflexibly towards God.

“Secondly, the active force which is ‘heat,’ which is not found in fire simply, but exists with a certain sharpness, as being of most penetrating action, and reaching even to the smallest things, and as it were, with superabundant fervor; whereby is signified the action of these angels, exercised powerfully upon those who are subject to them, rousing them to a like fervor, and cleansing them wholly by their heat.

“Thirdly we consider in fire the quality of clarity, or brightness; which signifies that these angels have in themselves an inextinguishable light, and that they also perfectly enlighten others.”  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seraph)

 Fiery describes Seraphin well.  He seems to me more like Pico’s Seraphim “impatient of second place”.  He was an achiever, he made a successful life with the work of his own hands and that of his family, as he made his way through many occupations.

When I was growing up I heard less of him than his son Xavier, and i knew his son Wilfred, from what I have heard and from what others have told me I think he was a hard man, but not cruel; a charitable man but not kind; a respected man but not loved in the way his son David was so greatly loved by all who knew him.  It’s hard to piece together a personality from the shreds of folklore that reach down through time, but it is certain that Old Sullivan was a hard working man who acheived success on a hard land and raised a children who were all achievers. 

I’m not into canonizing my ancestors but it is impossible not to be impressed with what this farm boy from French Canada accomplished in his life.  Although he did not gain great wealth he accumulated enough of money and respect to place his children well in the community and he was a local force to be reckoned with.

I think he became Sullivan King shortly after he arrived in the United States.  The decision to Anglicize his name was most likely pure pragmatism, it made dealings with people easier.  He came to Moore’s Forks, NY.  We’re not sure why he chose that town, it isn’t far from where he grew up, but there were lots of other choices.  He worked as a shoemaker and met Mary Miller, married and went to live and work on her mother’s farm.  As the family grew he found work in Lyon Mountain and moved his family there, just a mountain away from his Mother-In-Law’s home, she may even have come with him, since we know she died at Lyon Mountain. 

He wasn’t a miner, he may not have liked the underground, certainly his son Xavier and grandson Howard did not take the depths, but it is more likely that he found the possibilities above ground to be more appealing.  We know that he made money and connections enough to by a farm and open a saloon at Chazy Lake, just as the lake became a popular resort.  I suspect he enjoyed people and was a good talker, certainly his bar was popular… and controversial too from time to time as the occasional notice in the paper revealed.

He looked after people… both good and bad, he is known to have helped out an old lady locally called “Grandma Grundy” who was noted for her cruelty to small anmials by providing her with a place to live and in his old age he took in a little girl who needed a home… he and Mary raised her as their own.

Perhaps in giving him a name his mother was making a prayer for him, and it seems that it was answered as well as any mother of a pioneer could hope; except for one thing… he was not a physically big man, he may have been just 5foot 8 and was slender and slight of build.

CK