USA > Connecticut > Tercentenary pamphlet series, v. 3 The Beginnings of Roman Catholicism in Connecticut > Part 2
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was appointed the vicar general of the diocese. This William Tyler was to become the first Catholic bishop of Hartford.
The first New England nun was of Puritan stock. She bore the family name of Fanny Allen and was a daughter of Ethan Allen, the famous hero of Ticonderoga. Who among the Connecticut-born was the first to be clothed in a religious habit and devote her life to poverty, chastity, and obedience? The personage who holds this distinction was, surprisingly, a married woman and a convert to Catholicism. Jerusha Booth (1789-1860) was born in Newtown, Connecticut, and at a youthful age married a recently ordained Anglican minister, Virgil Horace Barber (1782-1847), the son of Daniel Barber. Through reading the life of St. Francis Xavier, the inti- mate convictions of both led them to seek further knowl- edge of the church that produced him. After much study and sacrifice of position, both made their profession of belief in the Roman Catholic Church to Father Fenwick in New York. After their reception into the Church in 1816, the strange workings of grace seemed to exact a further self-renunciation of them. Although the mother of five children, Jerusha Barber experienced the call to evangelical perfection, a call which was further enhanced by her husband's ardent desire to exercise priestly func- tions. By special papal permission, she was allowed to enter a Visitation convent and Virgil Barber was ad- mitted into the Jesuit novitiate. Mrs. Virgil (Booth) Barber, known in religion as Sister Mary Augustine, taught in the first free Catholic school in the District of Columbia. Over her signature the first prospectus of 1819 appeared. Her example was one of remarkable sanctity. She trained teachers in the community at Georgetown and assisted in the promotion of Catholic teaching in the
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convents at Kaskaskia, St. Louis, and Mobile. She lived to the age of seventy-one and had the consolation of seeing all her children espouse the religious life-three of her daughters becoming Ursuline nuns, one affiliating herself with the Visitation Order, and her son taking the vows of the Society of Jesus. A recent dissertation on the Barber family concludes: "For all who are gifted with vision for the supernatural the biography of the Barbers will hold an appeal. Theirs is the most glorious spiritual romance in the annals of the Church in the United States."
VII
THE early episcopal jurisdiction of Bishop Carroll ex- tended over the whole United States. In response to his request to Rome to have his immense and impossible diocese divided, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Bardstown, Kentucky, were made suffragan sees to the archbishopric of Baltimore in 1808. Connecticut was placed under the jurisdiction of Boston. The first New England bishop, Jean Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus (1768- 1836, bishop of Boston, 1810-1823), paid a visit to the Catholics of Hartford and there is a tradition that he said Mass in the hall of representatives in the Old State House. His journey through the state included stops at New Haven, where he said Mass at the home of a French professor at Yale. At New London, the fort served as the place of worship.
The journey of the Very Reverend John Powers, vicar general of New York, is characteristic of the hardships and antipathies of the time. During the construction of the Enfield Canal at Windsor Locks, an Irishman was seriously injured and wanted the consolation of receiving the last sacraments from a priest. The nearest priest was
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in New York City and Father Powers answered the call. The Catholic was cared for and the priest began his long journey back to the metropolis. Upon reaching New Haven, he requested the use of the Protestant Seaman's Chapel at the Long Wharf for the celebration of Mass. He was turned away with the rebuff: "We have no Popery in New Haven and we don't want any."
The successor of Bishop Cheverus was Bishop Benedict Joseph Fenwick (1782-1846), a descendant of the Catho- lic founders of Maryland. Severely trying were the ad- ministrative duties of Bishop Fenwick of Boston. His jurisdiction extended over all the New England states. The scanty Catholic population was widely scattered, the number of priests totally inadequate, the means of travel time-consuming and physically exhausting. In 1828, he could spare only one priest, the Reverend Robert D. Woodley, for all Connecticut and Rhode Island. This priest came to Hartford and celebrated Mass in the house of John Mulligan at 34 Village Street. The following year found him again in Hartford where the pastorless little community had started a weekly religious paper, The Catholic press. Twice during the month of July, 1829, Father Woodley returned to Hartford, the occasion of the second visit being a reception to Bishop Fenwick, who came for his first episcopal visitation. The bishop's im- mediate purpose in coming was to complete the purchase of a church which the Episcopalians had outgrown. The new edifice-the present Christ Church Cathedral-was to be dedicated in November and the old one was on the market. One of the first duties of Bishop Fenwick was to inspect the new church. It was there that the two bishops met-Bishop Brownell, who was giving up the old edifice, and Bishop Fenwick, who was eager to acquire it. Mon- signor Duggan's History records the conversation. It was
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a pleasant meeting of gentlemen. There was no tinge of bitterness in the quips that passed between them. "Well, Bishop Fenwick," said Bishop Brownell, "as we have a fine new church building we will let you have the old one." To which Bishop Fenwick replied, "Yes, and you have a fine new religion, and we will keep the old one."
The wooden church was purchased for five hundred dollars, the organ for four hundred dollars. Property across the street on the corner of Main and Talcott streets was bought for twelve hundred dollars. The old Episcopal church was moved across the street and after remodeling became Holy Trinity Church, the first Catho- lic church in Connecticut. The week following Bishop Fen- wick's visit, the first Catholic Sunday School was held in the printing rooms of The Catholic press.
When an Episcopalian opponent, through the Con- necticut observer, attempted to pick a quarrel with Bishop Fenwick, his rejoinder was: "Our views are altogether pacific. We wish, if possible, to live on good terms with all our neighbors, and especially those of the Episcopalian communion. They have generally treated us kindly, and we shall endeavor to prove to them that their kindness has not been thrown away, and that we too can be kind."
After remaining for a full week, Bishop Fenwick re- turned to Boston with hopeful prospects for religion in Hartford, and the intention to assign a resident priest there. The Catholic press of August 29, 1829, chronicled his advent thus: "The Reverend Bernard O'Cavanaugh arrived in this city on the 26th inst., being appointed pastor of the Roman Catholic congregation in Hartford, and missionary for the State of Connecticut in general, by the Right Reverend Benedict Fenwick, Bishop of Boston."
The story of the first church in New Haven opened
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with a calamity. Property had been bought on the corner of York and Davenport streets for the small sum of one hundred dollars. Father James McDermot, the first pas- tor, went ahead with the construction of a frame building in Gothic style. The Feast of the Ascension, May 8, 1834, was set for the day of dedication. Bishop Fenwick had arrived and dressed for the ceremony. When he and the assistant priests came to the altar, the gallery behind gave way and crashed with its occupants upon the people massed below. The horrible disaster, due to a departure from the plans given to the carpenter, caused two deaths and several injuries. The postponed ceremony was held the following Sunday and dedicated Christ's Church.
The third church in the state was erected in Bridgeport in 1843 at the corner of Arch Street and Washington Avenue. This was a brick structure under the patronage of St. James.
VIII
AT the fifth provincial council of Baltimore in 1843, Bishop Fenwick reminded his brethren of the hierarchy that age was creeping upon him and that the require- ments of his see were multiplying and urged the division of his episcopal territory. The request was granted by Rome and the see of Hartford was established with juris- diction over Connecticut and Rhode Island. As a suitable incumbent for the new bishopric, Bishop Fenwick pro- posed the Reverend William Tyler (1806-1849).2 Father Tyler received the bulls of his appointment and was consecrated in the cathedral of Baltimore March 17, 1844.
In those days the Hartford diocese could not boast of a formidable Catholic population. According to the census of the state which Bishop Fenwick took in 1835, just one
2 See above, p. 14.
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hundred years before the celebration of this Tercentenary year, there were only 720 Catholics in the state and only two wooden church buildings, and only two resident priests serving in the state. Obviously, this Catholic population was only of mustard-seed significance in com- parison with the widely organized Congregational socie- ties which had already 229 church buildings in the state.
Bishop Fenwick accompanied the Hartford ordinary to his new see. On April 14, 1844, he was formally installed in Holy Trinity Church. The pastor, the Reverend John Brady, celebrated Mass and Bishop Fenwick delivered the installation discourse. The appearance of the new bishop is described by his physician, Dr. Edward Le Prohon, in these words: "At my first view of the worthy prelate I recognized in him the lymphatic temperament which dominated him, a delicate, white skin, narrow shoulders, high stature, about six feet, the body long and thin, a well-featured countenance, sweet and calm, the cheeks slightly roseate, and constantly wearing spec- tacles, though he had not yet reached his forty-fifth year. The entire external appearance of Mgr. Tyler showed symptoms of latent consumption; Mgr. Tyler himself felt the need of taking care of his feeble health the better to exercise the laborious functions of the foundation of a new diocese. Mgr. Tyler's appearance took everybody's attention. He bore the expression of sanctity on his countenance, the seal of the man of God was to be seen on it."
The day after the installation, Bishop Tyler went to Middletown to inspect the church there which was then nearing completion. In 1848, he visited Stonington for the purpose of making a fervent appeal for funds towards the erection of a church there. Only $29.25 was amassed as the nucleus of the building fund on this occasion.
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After making a careful census of his diocese, the bishop discovered that there were more Catholics in Rhode Island than in Connecticut. The city of Providence had a population of 2,000 Catholics out of 23,000 inhabitants. Hartford's population was smaller, 600 Catholics out of 13,000 residents. Accordingly he petitioned Rome that his see might be moved to the Rhode Island capital, in order that he might be near the greater number of his people.
In Providence his episcopal residence was a mere shanty. Poverty stood in the way of any building pro- gram. His own labors were similar to those of a mission- ary priest. In a request sent abroad for financial help, he described the diocesan situation : "There are ten or twelve places where there are small congregations of Catholics, whom we occasionally visit to afford them the benefits of religion. I have with me in the whole diocese only six priests to assist me in administering to the wants of all these. So you will easily perceive that we are in want of zealous clergymen; and we have little prospect of any addition to our numbers soon." In acknowledgment of a benefaction of valuable aid from the Leopold Society of Vienna, he confessed: "When I was appointed to this diocese, I was overwhelmed with the sad prospect before me, and I knew not where to look for assistance."
Not long was the amiable and exemplary bishop able to stand the hardships and difficulties of episcopal jour- neys. The last time he attempted to say Mass was on Pentecost Sunday, 1849, but after vesting he found him- self too weak to ascend the steps of the altar. He con- tented himself with hearing Mass that day. Then he lay down and never rose from his bed again. He received the last sacraments from a friend of his boyhood, Bishop Fitzpatrick, and then passed to his reward. A commen-
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tator, Archbishop Dowling, said of him: "The poverty of his life, his unassuming manner, his strong good sense, his simple life, so near his people, greatly endeared him to his flock." Bishop Fitzpatrick, his friend and colleague, wrote: "His talents were not brilliant nor was his learn- ing extensive, though quite sufficient. But he possessed great moderation of character, sound judgment, uncom- mon prudence and much firmness."
IX
BISHOP TYLER'S successor, the Right Reverend Bernard O'Reilly (1803-1856), was installed in the cathedral at Providence, November 17, 1850. Upon receiving the news of his choice for the episcopal dignity, Father O'Reilly said: "I will, God helping, labor faithfully in this awful office. I have nothing at heart but God's glory in it." In the Connecticut portion of his diocese there were only five churches and seven priests. The great influx, how- ever, since 1845, of immigrants from Ireland was rapidly enlarging the opportunities for the Catholic Church in Connecticut and increasing the demands for its services. Bishop O'Reilly's principal concern, therefore, was to obtain clergymen and teachers to crystallize the religious life of his subjects. He met this problem in a threefold manner: by establishing a theological seminary at his own residence, by seeking candidates for the Connecticut missions at All Hallows College, Dublin, and by inducing the Sisters of Mercy to pioneer the way for Catholic education in his diocese.
The Sisters of Mercy had been organized in Dublin in 1831. The first American foundation of the order was at Pittsburg. Bishop O'Reilly succeeded in obtaining sisters for the city of Providence in 1851 and the following year, in answer to requests from the Reverend John Brady of
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St. Patrick's, Hartford, and the Reverend Edward O'Brien of St. Mary's, New Haven, four nuns were sent to each city. At Hartford, a school was opened in the basement of St. Patrick's Church and in New Haven, on the very day of their arrival, two orphan girls presented themselves at the convent seeking a home.
The building of the New York and New Haven Rail- road had brought many laborers, principally Irish, along its route. A committee of Catholics from Norwalk had petitioned their bishop for a resident pastor. Assigned to the post from Hartford, the Reverend John Brady began the erection of a church there and of another in Stamford. Protestant townsmen in Norwalk contributed towards the church fund and evidenced good will towards their new fellow citizens.
The year 1851 witnessed the formation of seven par- ishes. Plans were pursued in New London and in Stoning- ton to complete church structures there. The Ames Iron Works of Falls Village employed eight hundred men and favored a new resident priest. Edward Ryan of Nor- folk donated property for ecclesiastical use in that town. A Protestant of Derby, Anson Phelps, set a record of brotherly friendship by presenting the Catholics with an excellent site for their proposed church. In Dan- bury the Universalist Church was purchased. The census by the first pastor in Norwich revealed three thousand Catholic dwellers, mostly Irish immigrants, recently arrived.
Bishop O'Reilly's episcopacy of five years witnessed an increase in Connecticut of twenty-two churches, twelve priests, two orphan asylums, a parochial school in Hart- ford and two in New Haven. Just as the theory of educa- tion in the earliest colonial schools of Connecticut was religious in content, purpose, and guidance, the theory of
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Catholic education was applied similarly through paro- chial schools. The important practical difference appears, however, in the source of financial support. In the original instance, under the régime of the established church, Congregational schools drew upon governmental re- sources. In the present instance, religious education has succeeded in thriving on voluntary offerings that are given through generous personal self-sacrifice.
Strange was the death of Hartford's second bishop. On a return trip to the United States from Liverpool, the steamer Pacific, on which the bishop had taken passage, disappeared at sea and no survivor lived to tell its story. After waiting almost five months for some report, the funeral services were conducted for the deceased bishop over an empty catafalque in the Providence cathedral.
X
THE Right Reverend Francis Patrick MacFarland (1819- 1874), a native of Franklin, Pennsylvania, became the third bishop of Hartford. During his term of office, the Catholic population increased to such an extent that a division of the diocese was effected in 1872, and Provi- dence became a new and separate see with jurisdiction over Rhode Island. The see of Hartford became coter- minous with the state of Connecticut and the capital city welcomed its bishop to permanent residence. The clergy contributed $16,224 towards the purchase of a dwelling for him on the corner of Woodland and Collins streets. No less generously did the laity contribute $39,905 to the purchase of a site for a cathedral. Carefully and quietly the bishop examined the various eligible locations for a cathedral. Finally he selected the old Morgan homestead, a lot of between three and four acres on Farmington Avenue, belonging to Major James Goodwin, and pur-
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1
chased the same in July, 1872, at a price of $70,000. The first building erected on the property was the mother- house convent of the Sisters of Mercy, the chapel of which served as the procathedral.
On June 30, 1866, the following act was made part of the statute law of Connecticut: "Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General As- sembly convened: Sec. I. That the Bishop and Vicar- General of the diocese of Hartford, together with the pastor and two laymen of any Roman Catholic church or congregation in the State of Connecticut, upon com- plying with the requirements of this law, shall be, and are hereby constituted, a body corporate, with power to sue and be sued, to purchase, hold and convey real and personal property, and to enjoy all other rights and franchises incident to bodies corporate in the State of Connecticut." Under this statute, the Catholic Church in Connecticut has continued to hold its property and conduct its financial affairs in a way that accords with its own traditions and yet that harmonizes substantially with the legal provisions affecting the Protestant churches of the state.
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During Bishop MacFarland's episcopacy occurred the Civil War. Six hundred citizens of Irish extraction and Catholic faith formed the "Fighting Ninth" Regiment, recruited at New Haven and dispatched to Ship Island, off Mississippi, to aid in the campaign to gain control of the great river waterway of the South. One of the first Union officers to give his life was a Hartford Catholic, Captain James H. Ward, killed in a naval action on the Potomac river shortly after the outbreak of the war. The funeral was held from St. Patrick's Church, and his body was laid to rest in the Old North Cemetery.
Two army chaplains in the Civil War later held clerical
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positions of distinction in the Hartford diocese. The Very Reverend Leo da Saracena, chaplain to the Ninth Con- necticut Regiment, became pastor of the Franciscan parish of Winsted and surrounding towns. The other, the Reverend Lawrence McMahon, who served with a Massachusetts regiment, became the fifth bishop of Hartford.3 Bishop McMahon and Father Leo ever re- mained intimate and devoted friends.
A unique, historic school situation is worthy of record here. In 1867, the Reverend Matthew Hart, pastor of St. Patrick's, New Haven, placed his school under the New Haven board of education. So satisfactory has this ar- rangement been that the plan still continues at Hamilton School with mutual relations of harmonious achievement by both the Sisters of Mercy and the local board.
XI
CONNECTICUT's industrial era may be audibly symbolized by steamboat whistle and factory whistle; the one calling the emigrants from European shores, the other inviting laborers, machinists, and skilled workmen to set the wheels of industry to production. Many French Cana- dians came to the towns of eastern Connecticut where cotton mills made use of the streams for water power. Hardware and metal manufacturing in Hartford, New Britain, and the Naugatuck valley beckoned an influx of German, Polish, and Lithuanian immigrants. Large numbers of Italians centered in New Haven and Slovak groups located in Bridgeport.
Is it not generally conceded that traits of courage and energetic ambition motivate the emigrant to seek oppor-
3 Following Bishop MacFarland, the incumbents of the Hartford diocese have been Thomas Galberry (1833-1878), 1876-1878; Lawrence S. McMahon (1835-1893), 1879-1893; Michael Tierney (1839-1908), 1894-1908; John J. Nilan (1855-1934), 1910-1934; Maurice F. McAuliffe (1875-), 1934 -.
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tunity in a new land? The newcomers here possessed commendable features which contributed to this state's development. Although handicapped by language and limited resources, these naturalized citizens have, many more times than not, used their opportunities of educa- tion, employment, and citizenship to good advantage for their adopted communities and for their personal better- ment. It must not be forgotten that much of the concen- trated capital of the industrial age was amassed through the importation of cheap labor from Europe-a policy which manufacturing concerns encouraged through company agents and steamship agencies, by inducing migration from abroad.
During these years of great population expansion, it was one of the duties of the episcopacy of the Roman Catholic Church to provide a clergy who could minister to the spiritual needs of these people in their accustomed language. The rapid influx of family after family and group after group created a problem which successive bishops have met with fatherly care and devotion. The extent to which Connecticut has become a fixed abode of immigrants during the last century is revealed by the figures of the United States census of 1930. The number of foreign-born plus the number of native whites of foreign or mixed parentage totals one million, thirty-nine thousand-an excess of almost two to one over those of native-born parentage. The racial elements that form the largest percentages of this population are, in the order of magnitude, Italian, Polish, Free-State Irish, German, French Canadian, English.
XII
RELIGIOUS community life is characteristic of the devel- opment of the Roman Catholic Church in all lands and
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ages. New religious orders are founded in answer to definite needs. The Congregation of the Paulists in New York City is the oldest distinctively American com- munity. Founded by five Americans who were converts to Catholicism, the community has aimed at the dissemi- nation of Catholic truth particularly for the benefit of those who were not members of the Church. The press, the radio, the pulpit, the liturgical choir, the question box, and Newman clubs at non-Catholic colleges are types of instructive media which the Paulists have suc- cessfully utilized. "Our new society," wrote the first superior, "would embody in its life what is good in the American people in the natural order and adapt itself to answer the great wants of our people in the supernatural order. The character and spirit of our people, and their institutions, must find themselves at home in our Church in the way those of other nations have done."
Towards the formation of this congregation, Connecti- cut contributed a native of Fairfield, Father Hewit. Augustine Francis Hewit (1820-1897) was of aristocratic lineage, his father being a prominent Congregational minister and his mother being the daughter of the Honor- able James Hillhouse, United States senator from Connecticut. He was educated at the Fairfield public school, Phillips-Andover Academy, Amherst College, and the Congregational seminary then at East Windsor, Connecticut. In the wake of the Oxford movement he adopted Episcopalianism. The year after John Henry Newman espoused the Roman Catholic Church, Hewit followed his example and was likewise ordained a priest. Some years later when permission was obtained from Rome for the founding of the Paulist community, Father Hewit was chosen to draft the first constitution and laws of the new institute. He conducted many missions, wrote
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extensively over a period of twenty years, and became the second superior. His most important writing was The King's highway (1874), an excellent work for those who are seeking truth from Scripture.
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