The first Dominican Sisters in the United States took their vows in 1822 in Kentucky. Mother Angela Sansbury was the first superior. In 1830, at the request of Bishop Benedict Fenwick of Cincinnati, five Sisters came to Ohio, where they started St. Mary’s Academy in Somerset. Today marks the beginning of the Columbus Dominicans. They arrived on February 5, led by Mother Angela’s sibling, Sister Benvin Sansbury (1797-1873) (seen above). In 1830, Ohio was the frontier, and Catholic schools were... Read more

On Thursday, March 12, 2009, at 6:00 P.M., author Justin Catanoso will the guest speaker at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute in Manhattan. An accomplished journalist, Justin will be talking about his new book My Cousin the Saint. The grandson of Italian immigrants, he talks about rediscovering his grandfather’s cousin Father Gaetano Catanoso (1879-1963), a Calabrian priest who was recently canonized. Justin’s book traces his journeys to Italy, where he reconnected with his extended family and learned about... Read more

Check archive.org to find out. The author was Father Alfred Young (1831-1900), a Paulist priest and musician. For more on the Paulists’ musical contributions through the years take a look at this essay on the community’s website. Read more

This day in 1953 marks the excommunication of Father Leonard Feeney (1897-1978), a Boston-based Jesuit whose views on salvation were at the center of the 1949 “Boston Heresy Case.” Born in Massachusetts, he joined the Jesuits at age eighteen and was ordained in 1928. A popular lecturer, author, and poet, in the early 1940’s he was appointed head of the St. Benedict Center for Harvard’s Catholic students. His lectures attracted the likes of a young Avery Dulles, John F. Kennedy,... Read more

Today marks the death of Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange (1784-1882), foundress and first superior of the Oblate Sisters of Providence. Born Elizabeth Clarisse Lange in Haiti, she came to America as a child, settling in Baltimore. With money left her by her parents, she started teaching African-American children in her own home. With the support of her spiritual director, a French Suplician named Hector Joubert, Mother Lange and three other women started a religious community for women “of color” in... Read more

Yesterday I learned that the Premio Dardo blog award has been bestowed on McNamara’s Blog. Many thanks to Pentimento, whose lovely blog I admire for doing one of the noblest things we can: “working to create a culture of love and beauty on the web.” She kindly describes McNamara’s Blog as a “reverent treasure trove of lore about Catholic life in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America.” Now if I understand the rules correctly, I’m supposed to pass an award on to... Read more

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He looked like a movie star, and John Markoe’s life would make a pretty good movie. Born to a blue-blood Philadelphia family in 1890, he left home after high school to work on the railroad out west. He came back when he was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He played in the 1913 Army-Notre Dame game that saw Knute Rockne’s forward pass. He graduated with the Class of 1915, known as “the class the stars fell... Read more

Today marks the founding of the Birmingham Oratory in 1848. After his conversion, John Henry Newman decided to join the Oratorians, founded by St. Philip Neri in 1575. For Newman, the Oratory most closely approximated his ideal of religious life with its balance between the communal life and individual initiative. When he returned to England, he established an Oratory in Birmingham, then a leading industrial town. He was associated with this community until his death in 1890. In 1859 Newman... Read more

Today marks the death of Adelaide Anne Procter (1825-1864), poet, social reformer, and convert. The daughter of poet Bryan Waller Procter, she began publishing her poems in Charles Dickens’ literary magazine Household Words anonymously. Her identity was soon discovered, and Dickens published her poems regularly over the next few years. Her first collection of poems was published in book form in 1858. In her early twenties she converted to Catholicism, a choice her family accepted willingly enough. Procter volunteered a... Read more