Sainthood Investigation for Fr. Paul Wattson, Graymoor Founder, Receives Support from Bishops

The U.S. Bishops, on November 11, 2014 at their Fall General Assembly in Baltimore, voted to support the local investigation into the life and work of Fr. Paul Wattson, co-founder of Graymoor Abbey.  This local investigation  into the priest’s life, work and personal sanctity is the first step toward formally opening a possible Cause for Canonization.

The bishops, by a unanimous voice vote, supported the advancement of the Cause at the local level.

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Who was Father Wattson?

Born in 1863, Louis Thomas Wattson was born to a devout Episcopalian family; in fact, his father was an Episcopalian priest.  He himself was ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in 1886; but he was deeply influenced by the life of St. Francis of Assisi.  He saw a need for a preaching order which emphasized service to the poor; he also sought to repair the breach which divided Christianity.

In 1900, Father Wattson was professed as a Franciscan friar in the Episcopal church; and he brought with him a number of other people.  Nine years later, in 1909, Father Wattson–together with his Friars and Sisters of the Atonement–was received into the Roman Catholic Church.  The group was the first religious community to be received corporately into the Catholic Church since the Reformation.

He was ordained to the Catholic priesthood by Archbishop John M. Farley in 1910.

Among his many contributions to the faith, Father Paul founded St. Christopher’s Inn, a refuge for homeless men; The Lamp, a monthly magazine devoted to Christian unity and the missions; The Ave Maria Hour, a radio program that broadcast stories about the life of Christ and the lives of the Saints, and the Union-That-Nothing-Be-Lost, an organization founded in 1903 to disperse donations to other charitable organizations.  He began the Church Unity Octave, commonly known among Catholics as the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, in 1907–before he had been received into the Catholic Church.  He also co-founded the Catholic Near East Welfare Association.

Today, the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement continue his work.