Today marks the death of another Civil War general who was Catholic: Major General Thomas Wilberforce Egan (1834-1887). Born to Irish immigrants in Watervliet in upstate New York, he enlisted at the start of the war and was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the 40th New York Volunteers. He served in nearly in nearly every major battle in the war’s eastern theater. The New York Times wrote of him : “He scorned to dismount under fire, and the result was... Read more

This morning it was announced that Pope Benedict XVI had appointed Milwaukee’s Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan to be the next Archbishop of New York. The Archbishop brings an impressive background with him: Secretary to the Apostolic Nuncio, Rector of the North American College, Auxiliary Bishop of St. Louis, head of an archdiocese. But not everyone may know that that the next head of Gotham Catholicism is also a highly accomplished Church Historian. Archbishop Dolan received his doctorate in Church History... Read more

Today marks the death of Sister Blandina Segale, S.C. (1850-1941), an Italian-American nun who ministered in the Wild West during its heyday. Born Rosa Segale in Italy, she emigrated to America as a child, settling in Cincinnati. At age sixteen she joined the Sisters of Charity, taking the name Blandina. After a few years teaching in Ohio schools, she was assigned to teach in Trinidad, Colorado, then a fairly lawless frontier town. A formidable character herself, she once helped a... Read more

Today marks the death of Bishop Edward Galvin (1882-1956), founder of the Columban Fathers. A native of Crookstown, he was ordained in Ireland in 1909. At the time, however, his diocese had too many priests, and he was sent across the water to Brooklyn. For three years he worked at Holy Rosary parish in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where most of his parishioners were from Tipperary. While he was there he read almost every book the Brooklyn Public Library had on China. In... Read more

Today marks the death of Venerable Samuel Mazzuchelli, O.P. (1806-1864), a pioneer missionary priest who established over twenty parishes in the American Midwest Born in Milan, he joined the Dominicans at age seventeen and came to America five years later. In 1828, he was ordained a priest in Cincinnati by the Dominican Bishop Edward Fenwick. Father Mazzuchelli was assigned as a missionary to an area covering Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. When he came to America he barely knew English, but... Read more

The first Polish settlement in America, surprisingly, wasn’t New York or Chicago. It was actually a rural Texas community named Panna Maria (Polish for “Virgin Mary”). Today marks the death of Father Leopold Moczygemba, O.F.M. Conv. (1824-1891), a Polish-born priest who was the leading figure behind the founding of that community. Born in Silesia, he joined the Conventual Franciscans and was ordained in Rome in 1847. At the request of Galveston’s Bishop John Odin, he went to Texas to minister... Read more

A Cambridge graduate born to a distinguished English family, Robert Hugh Benson (1871-1914) was ordained an Anglican priest in 1895 by his father, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Not long thereafter, he began to question the claims of the Church of England. Over the next several years he joined several Anglican religious communities, but he still wasn’t satisfied. In 1903, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church and was ordained a year later. In 1911 he was named a monsignor.... Read more

Shusaku Endo (1923-1996) was a convert to Catholicism who became one of the leading Catholic novelists of the twentieth century. He is sometimes called the Japanese Graham Greene,” and his 1966 book Silence invites comparison to Greene’s The Power and the Glory. Both novels feature a priest on the run from a government seeking to eradicate Christianity. While Greene’s protagonist is a Mexican priest in the early twentieth century, Endo’s is a Portugese Jesuit in seventeenth century Japan. Deacon Greg... Read more

Saturday, February 21, is the birthday of the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Cardinal Newman (1801-1890). A graduate of Oxford, he was ordained an Anglican priest in 1824. Newman’s preaching and his writing made him one of the rising stars among the Anglican clergy of his day, and that’s why it was such a shock when he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1845. After his conversion he was sent to Rome, where he was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1847.... Read more

Dear Friends, This weekend, for the first time in over two months, McNamara’s Blog will be on hiatus, as I will be on retreat at St. Ignatius Retreat House in Manhasset. The house was originally the Long Island mansion of the financier and philanthropist Nicholas Brady (1878-1930) and his wife Genevieve. Named Inisfada (Gaelic for “Long Island”), Brady was a devout convert who served Mass daily in his private chapel. When Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, visited... Read more