American Catholic History

In January 1634 two ships, The Ark and The Dove landed on St. Clement Island in the Potomac River, within the new colony of Maryland. The two ships were built by George Calvert, the first Baron Baltimore, to help him establish a colony of his own in the Americas. And with his conversion to Catholicism, his new colony would be a haven for Catholics in the New World. But by the time King Charles I granted the charter for the new colony, George Calvert had died, and his son, Cecil, inherited his title, Lord Baltimore, plus The Ark and The Dove, and his father's desire to establish the colony. King Charles named the new colony for his Catholic wife, Henrietta Marie. Cecil Calvert finally sent his two ships across the sea, but he could not go himself to establish his colonies. Instead, he sent his brother Leonard as the first governor of Maryland, with 140 settlers, including two priests. Shortly after landing they became friendly with neighboring tribes of Piscataway and Yoacamato natives, with the latter giving the new settlers their village to be their first city: St. Mary City, the first capital of the Colony of Maryland.

During World War I, the Knights of Columbus did more than anyone else — including the U.S. government — to help soldiers serving overseas, or even in remote parts of the U.S. Through their huts the “Caseys” distributed stationery, gum, playing cards, cigarettes, and so much more. Catholic soldiers could find the sacraments. "Everybody Welcome, Everything Free" was the motto, and they meant it. Everybody could come in to find a place to relax, read a book, play a game of cards, find counsel and solace, and have a bit of "home away from home." The huts also provided entertainment, sports tournaments and exhibitions. The Knights' efforts were the precursor to today's USO and the GI Bill. More than 100,000 of the soldiers who served during World War I were Knights, and both the first American soldier overall, an the final American officer to die in Europe during the Great War, were Knights of Columbus. The K of C was recognized by many for their contribution.

Fr. Francis Sampson was the “paratrooper padre.” He parachuted into Normandy, behind enemy lines, on D-Day, June 6, 1944, along with more than 13,000 other Allied paratroopers. He also was directly involved in the episode that inspired Steven Spielberg’s epic war drama Saving Private Ryan. He hadn’t planned on being a paratrooper when he joined the Army chaplain corps and the Archdiocese for Military Services, but his naiveté about what he had signed up for was a good thing for his men. He was dedicated to their well-being, spiritually and physically. On D-Day, he stayed behind at an aid station in a French village when the rest of the paratroopers he was with moved along to rendezvous with the larger unit. The aid station had 14 men who couldn’t be moved. When the Germans came he was put up against a wall and nearly shot, but a German sergeant recognized he was a priest and his life was spared. Once the Americans retook the village, he and the survivors were evacuated. Eventually he was captured and spent the last few months as a prisoner of war in Germany. After World War II ended, he served in Korea, and then stateside as a chaplain, and eventually the chief of all Army chaplains, before retiring in 1971.

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, born two months premature and the youngest of 13 in northern Italy, overcame the odds time and again. She and her sisters of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus made a huge difference for Italian immigrants in the U.S. and elsewhere. She personally founded 67 schools, hospitals, and orphanages in New York, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans, Seattle, and other cities in the U.S. and other countries. She had to overcome her own fragile health, plus the (initial) opposition of the Archbishop of New York, Michael Corrigan, plus a regular lack of funds and other resources. But through a deep faith in God’s providence, combined with her own tenacity and business savvy, she did amazing work.

Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most important early American wrters. He is known for horror, the macabre, suspense, and other dark themes. Poe was important in the development of science fiction and he invented the detective novel. But what is less well-known is his interesting knowledge of and interest in Catholicism. In an age where typical Protestants either wouldn’t have an idea of what Catholics actually believe, or wouldn’t be interested in presenting Catholicism in an honest light, Poe did both. And in one short story he even wrote a rather lovely poem that amounts to a prayer to the Blessed Mother. The poem, known as “Hymn,” invokes the aid of the Blessed Mother and has strong intercessory language. Later in his life, Poe lived in a cottage near the campus of St. John College at Fordham (known today as Fordham University) where he came to know and spend much time with the Jesuits who ran that school. He died in unfortunate and mysterious circumstances in 1849 at just 40 years old.

Election Day, August 6, 1855, is known as Bloody Monday in Louisville, Kentucky. The Know Nothings used violence to try to keep Catholics from voting, and the violence turned into riots. By the end of the day 22 were confirmed dead, though the number of dead was likely over 100. Learn more about this awful day in Louisville, which played a role in Louisville falling behind other cities along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, like Cincinnati and St. Louis, in terms of population and economic importance.

Jack Kerouac was born in 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts to Catholic parents. When he was four his saintly elder brother, Gerard, died tragically. His mother became more devout, but his father abandoned the faith and drank heavily. This childhood trauma affected the rest of his life, and he stopped going to Mass in his teens. After dropping out of college he began to write while in the military. In the late 1940s he and his friends, through their artistic and literary output, began the Beat Generation, signifying how their generation felt “beaten down” by the world. In 1951, Kerouac wrote his most important work, On the Road, but it wasn’t published until 1957. But through it all, what he was looking for was God. In the 1960s he returned, in stages, to the Catholicism of his youth, fully returning to the faith by the end of the decade. He died in 1969 as a result of a lifetime of heavy drinking.

Born just before the potato famine ravaged Ireland, John Boyle O’Reilly grew up in an Ireland still dominated by England. His father was a schoolmaster, so John and his siblings received an excellent education. He was very outgoing, made friends easily, and was a natural leader. He became a journalist, and then a soldier. He also joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood — the Fenians — who were bent on revolution and the end of British rule of Ireland. Eventually arrested for treason, O’Reilly was sentenced to "transportation" and was sent to a penal colony in Australia. He escaped from that colony in epic fashion, arriving in Boston in 1870. He got a job as a reporter with the Boston Pilot, eventually becoming part owner and publisher. He used the pages of the Pilot to advocate for civil rights for all. He became a very respected journalist, poet, speaker, author, and activist. His sudden death at 46 years old shocked Boston and beyond.

Sts. Isaac Jogues, Rene Goupil, and John de Lalande were three of the eighte North American Martyrs. In Canada this group is known as the Canadian Martyrs. Rene Goupil was the first to be martyred, earning that crown in 1642 after teaching some Mohawk children how to make the Sign of the Cross in the village of Ossernenon, west of present day Albany, New York. Isaac Jogues, who had been tortured around the time of Goupil's death, was martyred in 1646, with John de Lalande following him in death soon after. These Jesuits shed their blood for Christ on this continent. 

Bernard Nathanson helped co-found NARAL an was responsible for 75,000 abortions, including 5,000 he did with his own hands. But with the advent of advanced imaging technology that allowed a more clear view of the fetus in the womb, he began to realize the humanity of the unborn child, and by the end of the 1970s he had fully accepted that abortion is wrong. He became an ardent pro-life, anti-abortion advocate, but was an atheist through the 1980s. In the 1990s, however, his quest for forgiveness and absolution of his many evil deeds led him to become Catholic in 1996. He died in 2011.

Patricia Neal’s Hollywood career began the same year she met Gary Cooper and started an affair with him. That affair had a profound impact on the rest of her life. She had an abortion, and lived with the pain of the relationship gone bad for decades. She married British author Roald Dahl and they had five children. But tragedy struck two of her children and herself, and then Dahl asked for a divorce after she found out he’d been having an affair. She was living with a lot of pain. But in the meantime she had a reconciliation with Gary Cooper’s wife and daughter, Maria, after Maria reached out to her with forgiveness and a desire to mend fences. Eventually Neal found peace and solace at the Regina Laudis Abbey — home to Mother Dolores Hart — which she visited at the suggestion of Maria Cooper. Eventually, after experiencing much healing and peace, she became Catholic and after her death was buried at Regina Laudis.

Gary Cooper was one of the greatest actors in Hollywood history. His strong, understated, good-natured characters established a paradigm, especially for Western heroes. He won two Oscars for Best Actor, while acting in 84 films over 36 years. But his off-screen life wasn’t quite as virtuous and praiseworthy. He had a significant problem with philandering, which continued even after he got married. His wife, Veronica “Rocky” Balfe, was Catholic, and eventually her strong faith, and that of their daughter Maria, encouraged him to consider becoming Catholic and turning over a new leaf. By the time cancer came for him in 1961, he had become Catholic, left his womanizing ways behind, and embraced fully the life of the Sacraments.

Donald Brown wasn't Catholic when he became fascinated with the Rosary. A bad bout of pneumonia when he was young put him in a hospital run by Sisters of Mercy in the early 1900s. In 1917 he began to collect rosaries. In 1929 he became Catholic. Over the decades he collected about 4,000 rosaries before his death in 1975 at 80 years old. His rosaries include some connected to Sister Lucia, one of the visionaries of Fatima, Governor Al Smith, Padre Pio, President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Father Flanagan of Boys Town, Lou Holtz, and others. They range in size from the size of a thimble to 16 feet long. They are made from everything from precious gems to pieces of bone to foam balls. The collection occupies the top floor of the Columbia Gorge Museum in Stevenson, Washington, 45 minutes east of Portland, Oregon.

Jean Louis Cheverus was a remarkable man and the first bishop of Boston. He was another of the many bishops, priests, and religious who fled France due to the French Revolution and made a tremendous impact on the Church in America. During his 27 years in New England he changed things dramatically. When he arrived, Catholics were a definite minority, and a reviled one at that. But through his tireless ministry, good humor, erudition, and holiness, he won over many previously hostile protestants, and became a friend to John Adams, Josiah Quincy, and many other prominent protestants. His counsel was sought by legislators. He aided in establishing the first chartered savings bank in the U.S. He worked tirelessly among all of his flock, no matter their social status or race. He established the first two parishes in New England, including St. Patrick for Penobscot and Irish in New Castle, Maine. His sudden departure in 1823 when he was named bishop of Montauban in his native France saddened everyone. But he left a lasting legacy on Boston and New England.

Sister Ignatia Gavin co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous. She worked in Admissions at St. Thomas hospital in Akron, Ohio. She had compassion for the alcoholics who came to the hospital. However, medical practice at the time did not regard alcoholism as a disease to be treated through admission and medical treatment. In 1939 Sister Ignatia and Dr. Bob Smith managed to get the hospital to admit alcoholics for the first time. From that first admission the practices of Alcoholics Anonymous grew into a national — and international — phenomenon. In 1952 she was transferred by her order to St. Vincent Charity Hospital in Cleveland, where she established Rosary Hall Solarium. Since her death in 1966 Rosary Hall Solarium and Ignatia Hall at St. Thomas Hospital in Akron have both continued to treat those with substance abuse problems.

Ven. Nelson Baker was incredible. After a time as a soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War, he found success in business. He felt a call to the priesthood. He saved lives in and around Lackawanna, just south of Buffalo, New York. He invented direct mail fundraising. He did whatever was needed to build institutions to make others' lives better. And he did it all by relying utterly on the intercession of Our Lady of Victory. As a tribute to her beneficence, he built the massive and breathtaking Basilica of Our Lady of Victory.

Mark Twain considered Personal Reflections of Joan of Arc his best, and his favorite work. He spent twelve years researching for it, and then two years writing. The book was originally published under a pseudonym in serial in Harper's Weekly. His fans and the general public were shocked and confused when they found out that this beautiful, serious, and deeply Catholic book was written by Twain. Twain was not Catholic — he wasn't even Christian — and he had a great animosity toward the Catholic Church. But in Joan of Arc he found the greatest human person he'd ever encountered.

A legend of the Wild West, John Henry "Doc" Holliday was born in Georgia to Presbyterian and Methodist parents. But his sweetheart growing up was Catholic — and his first cousin — Martha Ann "Mattie" Holliday. After an excellent education and becoming a dentist, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. To survive he had to move to a more arid climate, like west Texas, and parts of the desert and great plains states. Eventually he had to stop being a dentist, and he became a professional gambler and gunslinger. He befriended the Earp brothers, especially Wyatt, and was involved in many adventures with the Earps, including the famous shootout at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Eventually the tuberculosis worsened and he died at 36 in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. But he had maintained a correspondence with his beloved Mattie. She had become a nun, and her influence led to Doc summoning a priest and becoming Catholic shortly before he died. The romance between Doc and Mattie was later captured in the 1939 movie <i>Gone With The Wind</i>, because the author of the book, Margaret Mitchell, was a second cousin, once removed of Mattie Holliday.

Saints Bonosa and Magnus were martyred in Rome in either the third or fourth century. Their bones rested peacefully in the catacombs until 1700, when they were given to the Cistercian sisters in Anagni, a town near Rome, for veneration in their chapel. When the Kingdom of Italy conquered the Papal States in the late 19th century, Pope Leo XIII needed a new place to keep these old relics safe. Fortunately, the pastor of St. Martin of Tours parish in Louisville, Kentucky had written to Rome requesting relics. Pope Leo XIII sent the skeletons of Bonosa and Magnus, and since 1901, these two Roman martyrs have been venerated safely and peacefully in Louisville. Learn more about the parish of St. Martin of Tours, and how anti-Catholicism almost destroyed that church when it was only two years old. 

Father Mulcahy, Army chaplain of the M*A*S*H 4077, was perhaps the most important priest on network television not named Fulton Sheen. He was a fictional character, and the actor who played him, William Christopher, was Methodist. But Father Mulcahy was an integral part of what made M*A*S*H one of the best television series of all time. He was a humble, real man, with his own struggles with pride, but who managed to be a steady and humanizing presence in that TV depiction of hell on earth.