“Tell me, is Monsignor Hickey still alive?” “Yes, he’s alive,” the visiting priest answered his host as they sat out on the lawn, one summer day in 1970, overlooking the valley vista beyond them. “But he’s very, very sick.”
Tag Archives: Real American Apostles
‘The Snowshoe Priest’: Venerable Frederic Baraga
Update: On May 10, 2012, it was announced that Bishop Baraga’s decree of heroic virtue had been approved by the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. The subject of this article now bears the title, “Venerable.” Deo gratias! * * * … Continue reading
Frontier Missionary of the Sacred Heart: Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne (1769-1852)
Inscribed on the Pioneer Roll of Fame at Missouri’s Jefferson Memorial Building in St. Louis, are the words: “Some names must not wither.” First among those etched on the bronze tablet is “Philippine Duchesne.” Worthy tribute. But she was much … Continue reading
Joseph Chihwatenha: Red Man Without a Cause
From 1542-1834, there were 117 martyrs who shed their blood for the Faith in the land that became the United States. During those years all of them had been referred to Rome as candidates for canonization. Only the three of … Continue reading
America’s Jesuit Apostle: Father Arnold Damen
Having an aversion to serialized articles on the Internet, I have opted not to call this “Father Arnold Damen, Chicago’s Jesuit Apostle: Part II.” A clunky name, that. This is, nonetheless, a second article on Father Damen, but a “free-standing” … Continue reading
Bluegrass Belgian: Kentucky’s Missionary Dynamo, Father Charles Nerinckx
“Mitte Belgas” (send Belgians), implored Saint Francis Xavier in a letter written from India to his Father General, Saint Ignatius Loyola. The Indian mission of the East required religious who were not only proven in virtue but strong in physical … Continue reading
Father Arnold Damen, Chicago’s Jesuit Apostle
Enjoying a varied reputation as pioneering parish priest, educational trail-blazer, inspiring mission preacher, formidable religious controversialist, and, oh yes, a ghost that haunts historical buildings on Chicago’s Near West Side, Father Arnold Damen, S.J., is an important figure in American … Continue reading
The Vision and Vocation of Orestes Brownson
The life of this great American thinker, Orestes Augustine Brownson, which spanned the major part of the nineteenth century (1803-1876), found its meaning in a vision and a vocation. His vision was to make America Catholic.
Maryknoll before Marx: The Saintly Father Thomas Fredrick Price
Last week we heard that Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann was elected president of the UN general assembly. A Maryknoll priest, D’Escoto was suspended when he defied instructions from the Holy See in becoming foreign minister for the leftist Sandinista regime in … Continue reading
The Apostle of the Rocky Mountains: Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, S.J.
Contemporary historians are inclined to classify the efforts of early Jesuits in this country as being essentially exploratory. The truth is that these noble sons of Saint Ignatius explored our untamed regions simply to bring the message of salvation to … Continue reading
The Catholic Venture of Christopher Columbus
When writing to the people of the United States in 1895, Pope Leo XIII observed: “The names newly given to so many of your towns and rivers and lakes teach and clearly witness how deeply your beginnings were marked with … Continue reading
The First Yankee Priest, Father John Thayer
Question: What do a French beggar-saint, a burned-down Boston convent, and County Limerick, Ireland, all have in common? Answer: The subject of this article, the first “Yankee Priest,” Father John Thayer. Being the scion of Puritan settlers of New England, … Continue reading
The Case of Father Michael Mueller
As thinking Catholics the world over realize, the Church today is in a state of crisis — one that Pope Paul VI described as its “auto-demolition,” its self-destruction. The great majority of those who acknowledge this agonizing reality are inclined … Continue reading
Father Demetrius Gallitzin: The Princely Apostle of Western Pennsylvania
Talk about incongruous. The man known as the “Apostle of the Alleghenies,” and the founder of the town of Loretto, Pennsylvania, was a Russian Prince reared in the Hague as the sophisticated, freethinking scion of a diplomatic noble family. Father … Continue reading
Black Robes and Flat Heads and French, Oh My!
I’m reading Our Land and Our Lady, a superlative volume penned by the one-time collaborator of Father Feeney’s, Daniel Sargent. Mr. Sargent was a Yankee Blue Blood who converted to Catholicism and became a wonderful Catholic writer. Google Book Search … Continue reading
