Archbishop Robert Seton was remembered as a fairly eccentric character who made a good deal of his family background. A pastor, scholar, and enthusiast for ecclesiastical minutiae, he was also a genealogist who traced his roots back to Medieval Europe. In 1899, he published a 438-page history, An Old Family: The Setons of Scotland and America. Enthusiasts of American Catholic history will find the second half most interesting, which discusses his grandmother, St. Elizabeth Seton (1774-1821), and her descendants. Elizabeth... Read more

History shows that the Catholic Church from the day that she was founded has constantly sought to fulfill the commission entrusted to her by her Divine Founder: “Go ye into the whole world, and preach the Gospel to every creature” (St. Mark xvi.15), and that whatever influence she has exerted over men has been for the accomplishment of this great object. She has so consistently delivered her message to men without distinction of race, color, or rank, that if she... Read more

In 1852, Dr. Levi Silliman Ives, the Episcopal Bishop of North Carolina, traveled to Rome, where he renounced his office and formally submitted to Pope Pius IX. In a dramatic gesture, he removed his episcopal ring and laid it at the pontiff’s feet. This was the first time since the Reformation of the sixteenth century that a Protestant bishop had embraced the Roman Catholic Church. In doing so, Ives abandoned a position, he wrote, in which he had acted as... Read more

The Battle of Stones River, which took place on December 31, 1862, in Tennessee, was a hard-fought Union victory. But for the federal commander, Major General William S. Rosecrans, it came at a personal loss, the death of his aide and friend, Lieutenant Colonel Julius Garesché. A respected officer, Garesché had recently left a desk job for field service. When news of his death reached Washington, one general said it was “equivalent to a defeat, for Garesché was worth an... Read more

In 1792, when the French revolutionary government repressed all religious orders in the country, it effectively destroyed an educational system that was overwhelmingly Catholic. In the wake of the revolution, many religious communities were founded to revitalize Catholic life in France. One of them was the Society of the Sacred Heart, founded in 1800 by twenty-one-year-old Madeline Sophie Barat to teach young women. Barat, who led the community for sixty-five years, was canonized in 1925. In 1818, Sister Rose Philippine... Read more

After Pope Gregory XVI created the Diocese of Natchez* in 1837, it was four years before a bishop arrived. When Bishop John Chanche came to Natchez in May 1841, his ecclesiastical jurisdiction covered all of Mississippi, which had a total population of 375,000. He found about ten thousand Catholics, concentrated mainly in Vicksburg, Natchez, and along the Gulf Coast. There were no Catholic churches or Catholic institutions of any kind. There was one priest in the state, but he was... Read more

Urban ministry has been part of the Franciscan tradition from the start, and St. Francis of Assisi Church in Manhattan is one of the order’s great success stories. In a neighborhood undergoing constant remakes and changes, the parish has been one of the rare constants. In what is now a business district with very few residents, St. Francis provides an amazing variety of ministries to workers, travelers, visitors of all kinds, and most of all the poor. Its history begins... Read more

CHRISTMAS JOY Behold, I bring you tidings of great joy. – Luke ii.10There is hardly any one, my brethren, who lives where this feast of Christmas is kept who does not feel a special joy in it. Why do we say that “Christmas comes but once a year,” if not because we feel that nothing else can take its place? We look forward to it months beforehand; when it comes, we keep it as long as we can and let... Read more

I found this ad in the pages of the Brooklyn Eagle, and I’m pretty sure it’s one of the first ever advertisements for the school that would later become Fordham University: ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE, Rose Hill, Westchester County, N.Y.—This institution is situated in the immediate vicinity of the village of Fordham, in one of the most picturesque and healthy parts of Westchester county at a distance of about 11 miles from the city of New York, and 3 from Harlem.... Read more

“The Catholic Church… comes not to destroy the natural, but to fulfill—to purify, elevate, direct, and invigorate it. That is, she comes to give us precisely the help we need, and as our country is the future hope of the world, so is Catholicity the future hope of our country; and it is through Catholicity that bringing the supernatural to the aid of the natural, that the present evils which afflict us, are to be removed, and the country is... Read more