On January 15, 1888, Pope Leo XIII canonized Peter Claver (1581-1654), a Spanish Jesuit who ministered to African slaves in Colombia for over thirty years. Claver, who called himself the “slave of the Negroes,” was proclaimed patron of missions to people of African descent. Among the first churches named in his honor was a Brooklyn parish founded by Father Bernard Quinn in 1920. Located in Bedford-Stuyvesant, which was rapidly becoming a center for Black life in New York City, the... Read more

Today is the Feast Day of St. Arnold Janssens (1837-1909), a German priest who founded the Divine Word Missionaries in 1875. During the Kulturkampf, a government crackdown on the Church, religious orders were dissolved, and a mass exodus of priests and religious from Germany occurred. Janssen suggested that they devote themselves to the missions, arguing that the “Lord challenges our faith to do something new, precisely when so many things are collapsing in the Church.” Soon the Society of the... Read more

Loyola University in New Orleans has a fantastic digital collection of 19th century Jesuit photos. One of the most fascinating images I found is that of the Murphy brothers, Fathers Daniel J. (1852-1929) and Philip J. (1852-1920). They’re buried in the cemetery of Spring Hill College, Alabama. They were born on December 2, 1852, and joined the Jesuits’ New Orleans Province together on July 27, 1882. I assume they’re among the first twins ordained in America, if not the first.... Read more

This History test was given to sixth graders at a Brooklyn parochial school in 1916. (Click on the picture for a closer look.) I had trouble with a few of these! Read more

Today marks the death of Cardinal Henry Edward Manning (1808-1892), one of the leading figures in nineteenth century English Catholicism. After Oxford, he seemed destined for a shining public career, but he opted for the church. In 1833 he was ordained an Anglican priest and married, but his wife died four years later. This was the time of the Oxford Movement, an attempt to reassert the Church’s prophetic role in the face of government encroachment. For Archdeacon Manning, the final... Read more

Today marks the birth of a woman who became modern day martyr, Maryknoll Sister Maura Clarke (1931-1980). In 1980, she was one of four American missionaries murdered in El Salvador. Born in Queens, she joined Maryknoll out of high school. After a few years teaching stateside, she was sent to Nicaragua, where she worked with the poor for seventeen years. In 1980, as El Salvador was in the middle of a civil war, she answered Archbishop Oscar Romero’s call for... Read more

Following up an earlier post on 1800’s priests’ garb, I recently discovered this rare photo of a 19th century bishop in civvies. Shown here is Baltimore Archbishop Martin John Spalding (1810-1872) wearing a bishop’s pectoral cross over his suit. Spalding came from an old Kentucky Catholic family that’s given quite a few sons and daughters to the Church. Among his relatives was Mother Catherine Spalding (1793-1858), who founded the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. Spalding University in Kentucky was named... Read more

When college was sixty dollars a year! This ad for St. Francis College, Brooklyn, is from an 1876 issue of the The Catholic Review. The Review was an independent Catholic journal serving the metropolitan region from 1872 through the 1890’s. St. Francis still keeps its tuition one of the most affordable in New York City. Read more

Before he wrote I, Claudius, Robert Graves (1895-1985) served on the Western Front during World War I. His 1929 autbiography Goodbye to All That (1929) is still considered one of the best war memoirs ever written. In the book Graves describes himself as an Anglican raised with “a horror of Roman Catholicism,” but he had some good things to say about the Catholic priests he met during the war: For Anglican regimental chaplains we had little respect. If they had... Read more

Today marks the death of Elizabeth Prout (1820-1864), known as the Mother Theresa of Victorian England. Born in Shropshire to working-class parents, she converted to Catholicism in her early twenties. She joined a religious community but was dismissed on account of poor health. (For much of her life she struggled with tuberculosis.) After she left the convent, Elizabeth became a teacher in Manchester, then a booming urban center. One observer said it was hard to “convey a true impression of... Read more