Today marks the death of Father Patrick Healy (1834-1910), the Jesuit who is considered Georgetown’s second founder. Born in Georgia, he studied at Holy Cross before joining the Jesuits. He earned a doctorate at the Louvain and was ordained in 1864. He was then assigned to Georgetown, where one student described him as “a finished scholar, a remarkable, linguist, and the clearest thinker and expounder of his thoughts that I have ever met.” In 1874, he was appointed president. Over... Read more

During the 1920’s, organized anti-Catholicism reached a fever pitch in America. Nowhere was this more evident than in the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, which spread beyond the South, appealing to “old stock” Protestants unhappy with Catholic growth. By 1925, estimates placed national membership at five million. This Brooklyn Tablet cover from July 21, 1923, shows policemen holding up the church sign for Our Lady of Solace parish in Coney Island, over which are painted the letters “KKK.” Believe... Read more

St. Mary Star of the Sea Church was founded in Far Rockaway, Queens, during the 1850’s. Its cemetery is the final resting place for a former parish organist who was once America’s top box office attraction, actor and singer Alice Nielsen (1872-1943). Born in Nashville to a Danish father and an Irish mother, she started singing at an early age. After a brief and unhappy marriage, she set out on the vaudeville circuit, and by the late 1890’s she was... Read more

Find a Grave lists 111 famous people buried at Calvary Cemetery in Queens. The list includes Hall of Famers, Oscar winners, Medal of Honor recipients, congressmen, gangsters, and Civil War veterans. Today marks the death of General Francis Jay Herron (1837-1902). Born in Pennsylvania, he raised a company of volunteers when the Civil War began and served in the western theater. He won the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery at the Battle of Pea Ridge in 1862. In 1863,... Read more

In this week’s Brooklyn Tablet, editor Ed Wilkinson has an editorial praising the blogging forays of Deacon Greg Kandra and myself. Thanks to Ed and to my “blogfather” Deacon Greg, who encouraged me to start this blog in the first place. This has been a load of fun. It was Cardinal Newman who said, “Catholicism is a deep matter– you cannot take it up in a teacup.” Never was that more true than when you’re looking at the history of... Read more

On this day in 1905, the first Mass was celebrated at Epiphany Church in Williamsburg, a neighborhood whose Catholic population was growing rapidly. Within a few years it had fourteen parishes within walking distance of each other. The church building, formerly the Universalist Church of All Saints, had been purchased for $47,000. In 1906, a parochial school opened under the Sisters of St. Joseph, who ran it until its closing in 1973. At the start, the parishioners were predominantly Irish,... Read more

Thomas Nast really had it in for the Catholic Church! This cartoon, titled “The Promised Land,” appeared in the October 1, 1870, issue of Harper’s Weekly. Here Pope Pius IX and his minions look toward America in the hopes of subjugating it to Catholic rule. For Nast Roman Catholicism and American democracy were incompatible, a common theme in nineteenth century anti-Catholicism. Read more

After Ty Cobb was suspended in the spring of 1912 for attacking a fan, his teammates walked out in support. But the Tigers had a tough game coming up against the World Series champion Philadelphia Athletics, so owner Frank Navin recruited local players in the Philly area to fill in for them. Among them was Aloysius J. Travers (1892-1968), a student at the Jesuit-run St. Joseph’s University. On May 28, 1912, Travers became (in)famous for his one and only major... Read more

Today marks the birth of Louise Imogen Guiney (1861-1920), a Massachusetts-born essayist, poet, and literary scholar who spent much of her life in England. The daughter of a Civil War general, she worked as a postmistress and librarian in New england while pursuing her writing. In 1901, she moved to England permanently. In addition to her essays and poems, she wrote biographies of Irish nationalist Robert Emmett and Jesuit martyr Edmund Campion. In later years she wrote critical and biographical... Read more

Today marks the death of Father Edward McGlynn (1837-1900), a New York priest and social activist. Ordained in 1860, parish work in New York’s immigrant neighborhoods strengthened his commitment to the urban poor. In 1866, he became pastor of St. Stephen’s, then the city’s largest parish. He was troubled by “the never-ending procession of men, women and little children coming to my door begging, not so much for alms as employment… I began to ask myself, ‘Is there no remedy?’”... Read more