A drawing of the proposed college building, ca. 1910. JESUITS’ BROOKLYN COLLEGEBuilding on Crown Heights to be Largest of its KindThe New York Times, May 4, 1912 The largest college building in the world is being built by the Jesuit Fathers on Crown Heights, Brooklyn, between Eastern Parkway and Prospect Park. It is to be named Brooklyn College. The view from the hill where the college will stand is one of the finest in Brooklyn. It overlooks Manhattan on one... Read more

St. Patrick’s Day Without Shamrocks Mother M. Augustine McKenna, R.S.M. (1819-1883) We sought them ‘neath the snow-flakes And o’er all the frosty ground. But no leaflet like the Shamrock On St. Patrick’s Day we found. And our hearts went back to Erin, To her dewy vales and hills, Where the Shamrock twines and clusters O’er the fields and by the rills. Oh, no more, no more, my country! Shall thy loving daughter lay Down her head upon thy bosom While... Read more

James M. Schmidt, Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory (Charleston: The History Press, 2010). There are many statues on the Gettysburg battlefield, but only one is dedicated to a chaplain. On the battle’s second day, Father William Corby blessed the famed Irish Brigade before it entered the fight. The son of Irish immigrants, Chaplain Corby belonged to the Holy Cross Fathers, who founded the University of Notre Dame in 1842. No single moment so dramatically embodied... Read more

ST. FRANCIS XAVIER’S COLLEGE: Twelfth Commencement.The New College Building.The Graduating Class.Prosperity of the College.The New York Times, July 8, 1862 The Twelfth Annual Commencement of St. Francis Xavier’s College in this City took place yesterday afternoon, in the vast new hall of the college just erected in the college grounds, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, Fifteenth and Sixteenth streets. The building is divided into spacious class-rooms in the two lower stories. The entire upper floor, measuring about 60 feet by... Read more

Fame is fleeting, and never more so than for movie stars. A good example is Francis X. Bushman (1883-1966), one of the silent era’s biggest stars. Long before Clark Gable was named “King of the Movies,” Bushman first held the title. Before Alan Ladd stood on milk crates to make himself look taller, Bushman pioneered the technique. Before Sylvester Stallone, Bushman was the first actor to wow moviegoers with his physique. And he was also at the center of what... Read more

BREVET MAJOR GEORGE F. TAIT. Past Commander of U. S. Grant Post 327, G. A. R. Personal courage and reckless daring are conspicuous traits in the Irish character, and there is scarcely a little field in the world’s history in which the sons of Erin have not distinguished themselves by their gallantry and deeds of daring. The men of the Tenth New York, as seen in 1861. Major Tait, the subject of this sketch, was born in Ireland on May... Read more

St. Euphrasia Pelletier (1796-1868), foundress of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. Lent is approaching, my dear daughters, and with it fresh streams of grace, of spiritual life and of means of perfection. Prepare yourselves beforehand to spend it well. According to the mind of the Church, the time between Septuagesima Sunday and Ash Wednesday should be spent in preparing for the blessed forty days, and in several Religious Orders the fast begins from Septuagesima week. It is evident that Lent was... Read more

“Rev. Henry H. Wyman, Paulist Father, Native of Westminster, Dies in Chicago; Burial Here,” Fitchburg Sentinel, March 9, 1929Rev. Henry H. Wyman of the Paulist Order of Chicago, a native of Westminster, died in Chicago Thursday, the day following his 80th birthday. A funeral mass will be celebrated at the Paulist church, Chicago, Monday morning at 10 a.m. and the body, accompanied by a Paulist priest, will be brought to this city. It will be taken from the train to... Read more

Miss Mary M. Henning, the only lady that is a representative and active real estate, fire and plate glass insurance broker in the Borough of the Bronx, with office and residence on Avenue C, between Thirteenth and Fourteenth Streets, Unionport, was born in New York City, February 15, 1861, attended the sisters schools, and is an undergraduate of the Ursuline Academy. The daughter of Henry and Mary Magdalena Henning, old and highly respected residents of the Bronx, she was carefully... Read more

St. James Academy, Brooklyn, as seen in the early 1900’s.   Catholic education in Brooklyn (and Long Island) dates back to September 1823, when a layman named Mehaney gathered students in the basement of St. James Church. Nearly thirty years later, the church’s pastor asked the Christian Brothers in Manhattan to send teachers for the boys. (The girls were taught separately, first by the Sisters of Charity and later by the Sisters of St. Joseph.) In early 1852, Brother Albien... Read more