The Christian Brothers’ College in Memphis, Tennessee, is conducted by the Brothers of the Christian Schools, the renowned religious order founded in France in 1680 by St. John Baptist De La Salle. The order is now spread throughout the world, having schools and colleges in every land. The college in Memphis was formally opened on November 19, 1871, at the urgent solicitation of the clergy and people of the city, and especially of the Most Rev. P.A. Feehan, then Bishop... Read more
On October 31st in the year 1848, Father Oliver L. Jenkins, Deacon Edward Caton, and four students arrived at an unfinished building on the Fredrick Turnpike in Maryland’s Howard County. Here, one historian notes, Father Jenkins “established himself, in the midst of poverty and hardship, as the president of St. Charles College.” According to its charter, the college was for “the education of pious young men of the Catholic persuasion for the ministry of the Gospel.” Over the next 130 years,... Read more
Mother M. DeChantal Keating, for thirty-four years head of St. John’s Home for Boys, Albany and St. Mark’s Avenues,Brooklyn, died in that institution on Monday. Mother Keating was in her eighty-fourth year, and was the oldest Mother Superior in the Order of St. Joseph, having entered the religious profession sixty years ago. She was born Jane Keating in Kedra, County Tipperary, Ireland, and came to this country in 1852. When the civil war began, she went toWheeling, W.Va., as head... Read more
Church Festival in the Heat (The Brooklyn Eagle, July 17, 1900, p. 7) It is pleasant to know that there are people whose religion is not melted out of them by the present temperature. There seem to be at least 50,000 such inNew York. If the crowds about the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, in One Hundred and Fifteenth street yesterday, are not exaggerated. It was a festival of the patron of that church and Italians are said... Read more
SERMON CXLII. As lightning cometh out of the- east, and appeareth even unto the west : so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. ST. MATT. xxiv. 27. THESE words of our Lord, my dear brethren, refer principally to the general judgment, which will come {suddenly upon all, at least all of those who shall be alive at the time when it shall occur. And he could not have used a more striking comparison to show how... Read more
Catherine Tekakwitha By Eliza Allen Starr The sweet-briar rose of summer glades We lay upon another shrine;* The lily of the Mohawk woods, O dusky maiden! shall be thine. One pendent flower, upon a stem With leaves enfolded, pearly white; Itself, its eaves, its very stalk Like frost-work set in summer light. Though swaying to the lightest breeze, No fibre gives it earthly hold; A miracle of beauty, seen Upspringing from the forest mould.** And thus, in innocence of soul,... Read more
Katzer, Frederick Xavier, third Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese ofGreen Bayand first Archbishop of Milwaukee, was born at Ebensee,Austria, Feb. 7, 1844, son of Charles and Barbara (Reinhartsgruber) Katzer. After attending school atGruündin,Austria, to which place his parents had removed, he began his classical studies in 1857 at theJesuitCollege,Linz,Austria. He was graduated there in 1864, and coming toAmericain May of the same year, studied theology at the Seminary of St. Francis de Sales, nearMilwaukee,Wis., where he completed his studies... Read more
In every age and clime the Catholic Church has been a pioneer in carrying the banner of Christianity to remote and newly settled communities. The first Catholic priests to minister to the spiritual needs of the white settlers were Fathers Toussaint Mesplie and A.Z. Poulin. Upon hearing of the large influx of miners into the Boise Basin the Most Rev. Francis N. Blanchet, Archbishop of Portland, appointed these two missionaries to look after the interests of the Catholic miners in... Read more
By the death of Mother M. Gertrude Doyle, which occurred Saturday, March 22, 1913, the Pittsburgh community of the Sisters of Mercy sustained a heavy loss. She was known in the world as Anna Mary Doyle and was the second of eight children born to John and Elizabeth Spahr Doyle. The sterling qualities of the father and the gentle characteristics of the mother were combined in the daughter. She was educated with the Sisters of Mercy and later studied art... Read more
ON A PORTRAIT OF ST. ALOYSIUS GONZAGA By D.J. Mackin, Ph.D. “Quid hac ad aeternitatem?” Thou wast not born for earth, Unblemished lamb! Thy tender heart from birth Taught from its blessed dam To bleat for love of Him, Chief Shepherd of the spotless Cherubim. One only thought is thine– Eternity! So soon the flame divine Of love transfigures thee, And makes thy soul below Of God’s reflected radiance glow. No earthly crown wouldst thou Suffer to rest Upon thy... Read more
McNamara's Blog
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In