Fr. Joseph B. O’Hagan, S.J. (1826-1878)

Fr. Joseph B. O’Hagan, S.J. (1826-1878) December 15, 2009

Born in Ireland, Joseph O’Hagan’s family emigrated to Nova Scotia when he was young. He joined the Jesuits in 1847 and studied in Europe, where he was ordained in 1861. During the American Civil War he served as a military chaplain with the 73rd New York Volunteers. Intitally, they didn’t make a very good impression on him as he wrote: “Such a collection of men was never before united in one body since the flood. Most of them were the scum of New York society, reeking with vice and spreading a moral malaria around them.” His sense of humor is demonstrated by his account of a regiment electing a chaplain: “Over four hundred voted for a Catholic priest, one hundred and fifty-four, for any kind of a Protestant minister; eleven, for a Mormon elder; and three hundred and thirty-five said they could find their way to hell without the assistance of clergy.” In time he came to appreciate the courage amply displayed by his fellow soldiers on many a battlefield and how well most of them responded to military discipline and his own efforts. He became good friends with a Protestant Chaplain in the Brigade, Joseph Twichell, who was rather shocked when O’Hagan took him on a visit to Georgetown and found that the Jesuits liked to eat, smoke and drink! At Fredericksburg they huddled together for warmth under the same blanket, which caused Father O’Hagan to laugh at the idea of a Jesuit priest and a New England Puritan minister in such close proximity! After the war, Father O’Hagan served many churches in Boston and in 1872 was appointed President of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massaschusetts. At the end of his presidency he fell sick and for reasons of health sailed on a ship bound for California. Off the coast of Nicaragua he was stricken with apoplexy and died on board on December 15, 1878. His body was transferred to Worcester where he rests in the College cemetery.
(Adapted from the College of the Holy Cross Website and from The American Catholic)

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