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sonofhistory · 8 years ago

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do you know anything about what paine was like with the monroes when they were in france? i'm assuming his brief friendship with napoleon was largely because of them! and, if possible, could you find out if the monroes being slave owners was a strain on their relationship, if they in fact had a good one?

The Monroes being slaves was not a strain on their relationship what so ever because both parties grew up around slavery and inherited slaves when their fathers died.

The Monroes and Thomas Paine is a rather cool story, it has nothing to do with Napoleon Bonaparte however because they housed Paine during their first time in France from 1794-1797, they didn’t get into Napoleon’s circle until their second visit in 1803-1808. It was after James Monroe’s arrival in France that he addressed the National Convention, receiving a standing applause for his speech celebrating republicanism. He experienced several early diplomatic successes, including the protection of U.S. trade from French attacks and used his good influence on the French to win the release of Thomas Paine and Adrienne de La Fayette.

Thomas Paine was arrested in 1793 after publishing his antiroyalty book The Rights of Man and for his strict opposition to the death penalty which he vocally spoke about. He also began writing a provocative new book, The Age of Reason, which promoted the notion that God did not influence the actions of people and that science and rationality would prevail over religion and superstition. Autumn of 1793, he was arrested and taken to Luxembourg Prison. In prison, he continued to work on The Age of Reason. There is one such event that befell him while in prison, nearly taking his head:

“A chalk-mark used to be put on the dungeon door of each prisoner who was picked out for execution. The door of Paine’s cell swung open, so that when the marker passed along in the performance of his gruesome task he chalked the back of the door. Shortly after, Paine closed the door, so that the mark was inside and could not be seen. When the headsmen came in search of their victims, they saw no such mark on Paine’s door and so he escaped the guillotine.”

James Monroe began using all of his diplomatic connections to get Paine released in November 1794. Monroe began to clash with the other Minister to France, Gouveneur Morris over Thomas Paine’s release. Morris wanted to prevent Paine from returning to America and Paine was not as abusive of Morris as Morris was of Paine. Of course, Monroe received terrible attention from America because he was given specific instructions not to intervene in these such matters in France. It was on November 6th, that Monroe rescued Paine from Luxembourg prison. Monroe “took him, half dead, to his own abode, then the Maison des Eir angers, Rue de la Roi. This is now (1899) 101 Rue de Richelieu, printing office of Le Temps and publishing office of the Gironde. It is the same building as in Paine’s time, and several rooms retain traces of their former decora- tions. ” By November 30th, Monroe wrote to James Madison:

“Mr. Paine who is of my family desires to be remembered to you. He will be with you in the spring.”

Paine would live in the Monroe residence from November 1794 to the spring of 1796. He borrowed money “Mr. Paine had occasion to borrow two hundred & fifty crowns” (October 23, 1795). When Thomas Paine arrived at the Monroe’s home “he was in extreme ill health, without resource, & (affrs. being unsettled) not without apprehensions of personal danger, & therefore anxious to avail himself as much as possible of such protection as I cod. give him.” He was given a separate room in their house which he accepted, and it was his intention at that time some point in October on 1794 to depart for America in the Spring.

Monroe “asked permission of the Com[mity] of p[ublic] safety for him to depart” from France back to America, but he was denied with request. His disease being rather terrible, he continued to be in their home until in the words of Monroe, “his death or departure for America, however remote either the one or the other event may be.” James Monroe gave him a strict rule, that “whilst in my house, he would write nothing for the publick, either of Europe or America, upon the subject of our affrs.” Paine apparently did not look upon this in a favorable light but soon faltered after Monroe mentioned the “delicacy of my publick & private character” and for he did not want more to spoil his public character.

It was during this time that Monroe and Paine grew to be rather close and discussed deism and religion and Paine’s savior seemed to enjoy “the pleasure of extending to Mr. Paine”. Paine broke his promise and began communicating with Frederick Muhlenburg in America as well at Thomas Pinckney. Argument “revived” with Paine and Monroe began expressing his “extreme concern” that he pursued a conduct which, under existing circumstances, “gave me so much pain.”

By July 5th, 1796, Paine began to disobey and overstay his company in the Monroe home. Paine “having resolved to continue in Europe sometime longer” realized that “it was inconvenient for me to keep him longer in my family” he began publishing papers again as well as getting into politics issues which led to Monroe’s recall by President George Washington in 1797. Disregarding Monroe’s request which was that if Paine heard any information pertaining the United States since he was still ambassador, Monroe knew his guest was going to “probably compromit me by publishing some things which he picked up while in my house.” Paine began to harass and turned into more of a burden in the home. Paine did publish something, a pamphlet against George Washington and Washington back in America believing that Monroe was excepting this type of behavior, encouraging it and ultimately recalled him back.

Paine’s character not only was one of the leading reasons he got recalled, it was also what the Federalist began to strike against him when John Adams was elected in 1797. In a letter to James Madison on June 8th, 1798 in response to the May 8th address from the inhabitants of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania where President Adams complained that “the honor done, the publicity and solemnity given to the audience of leave, to a disgraced minister, recalled in displeasure for misconduct, was a studied insult to the government of my country” :

“The first paragh. is inaccurate, in implying that Paine did write in my house, whereas he did not—and in implying also that I knew of his writing by Mr. Pinckney as also the contents of the letter, wh. I did not, having heard of no such letter till Mr. Pinckney informed me of it after he left Paris as I accompanied him a few miles from the town.”

James Monroe may have saved Thomas Paine from the guillotine and prison but it certainly did him not good in the long run. He got on shiftier terms with the French, was recalled from his Diplomatic position and Federalist during the Adams Administration used his hospitality against him suggestion, charging saying he provoked Paine to write the anti-Washington pamphlets and spearheaded extremely inappropriate behavior.

#Thomas Paine #James Monroe #flood pressles box #since

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princezukohere · 8 years ago

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Still Friends *revisited* Part 2

part 1

1803 words, if you guys want to see anything specific talked about, let me know and I'll try to incorporate it)

Interviews were always some of the weirdest memories you and Shawn had, he was two years older than you, you had turned seventeen and soon he'd be turning nineteen but that wasn't the problem. It was the people who followed you around and listened to your every word. You two had been walking around a small store, it was two in the morning but he had three days until he was back on his world tour and he had just brought it to your attention that he and his team were planning a tour for illuminate.

-------------------------

"This is what makes me happy and I thought you'd get that," Shawn told you as he followed behind you, you stopped, turning to look at him.

"Of course I want you happy, I only ever want you happy. I'm sorry that you dropped this bombshell on me. Your tour ends March 18th, and you're already trying to start a new show, we haven't even made it to 2017 yet Shawn. You then want to start touring for five more months, after barely a month of a break." You said as he walked up to you.

"You'd be touring a month after I start." He tried to reason with you.

"That's not the point, the point is I barely get to see you and when I do it's for three days, or a facetime once a week. I want more than that Shawn."

The video a fan took was ended there, the rest of the conversation was for the public to figure out. She, of course, posted it and it got seen a lot and you and Shawn were the only thing people were talking about.

Is N/Y tired of the distance? Is there someone else N/Y has in mind? Shawn Mendes isn't giving girlfriend and singer enough??? Shawn and N/Y: Are they breaking up?!

It was always hard when rumors got started, especially when you two weren't around each other to talk about what was going. You hated being in the public eye when it came to negativity and Shawn didn't really see a reason to bring it up on twitter. If he did it would only cause a bigger question pool with reporters and he was annoyed that they started it and he knew if the wrong thing was said it could leave uneasy thoughts in both of your heads. Sadly with neither of you saying anything it leads to hate, more on your side as in a way, they would always choose Shawn unless he was genuinely wrong and nothing had been cleared out.

Of course, they broke up, she only used him.

She thinks she's top shit now, wow.

SO much for, don't forget the people who got you to where you are.

Shawn deserves better, how did he deal with a bitch like her for so long???

You and Shawn talked through it, in one long Skype phone call which in all honestly, scared you to even have.

"You know that I don't want to break up right?" He asked you, he was laying on his hotel bed and you were sitting on the couch in the studio.

"I know, neither do I. Rumors will be rumors and we can't control what the media says." You started, "I'm sorry. I should have talked to you about it privately instead of with everyone being around. You just released the album last month and it's going so well, I'm proud of you."

"I know you are. You're just stressed, take a break." He told you a small smile on his face. You set down your guitar and picked your phone off the table.

"I have the bonus songs done but I still have three more tracks and I can't think of what to write or what I want, the album's deadline is January and I don't want to rush three songs out. This album has been my way to make up for "opportunity," to show I'm capable. I don't want to mess it up when the rest of it is going so well."

"Regenerated is going to an amazing album, it's only october...you still have November and December to get your last three songs out and I know you can, don't force music, let the inspiration come to you."

-----------------

Hate was normal and you understood it, but you hadn't ever paid it much attention. This, this was all in your face, the reporters, the haters, the news reporters. Of course, there's always something to top the icing on the cake, you'd be at Beverly Center Mall in L.A.

Unplanned meetups were dangerous but you loved when people didn't have to pay to see you, of course, you got your manager's permission to do this and she called the mall to let them know. You were set up with security and a ride to get out when it was time, the police were only ever notified if it got out of hand which you were sure it wouldn't.

----------------

"The incident in L.A, it happened back in November, where there charges?" Selena, your interviewer asked.

"No, the security guard was fired and we got somebody else but, there were no charges thankfully. When events like this happen, especially when they're unorganized, a lot can happen."

---------------------

You had met a lot of people and it was getting closer to midnight. You had to record in the morning, so leaving now was your best bet. Your security explained that you had to leave and started to escort you out. Normally with all the screaming, you would have assumed that it was just them trying to get your attention but this was different. It was a blood-curdling scream, and people freaking out afterward. You quickly turned, seeing one of your security guards standing over a girl on the ground, the other was being pushed down when she started yelling at him.

"What the hell is going on?" You said heading back over, he had his taser out, girls surrounding him. "Don't you dare!" You yelled walking faster but by the time you could get through the crowd, girls were backing up and three young ladies laid on the ground.

"N/Y, you should be with the others, I can handle this." He tried but your face was heating up, anger building up.

"How is this handling anything!" You yelled, "You, a grown man vs one girl at a time. What in gods name do you think that hurting any of my family is ever okay." You shouted even louder. "These girls come here to meet someone, your job is to be crowd control, not the one starting the crowd up. Are you really ready to explain why they got hurt on our watch."

"They didn't pay to meet you so this isn't our problem." He corrected you, once again the fans got loud. You could feel yourself being pushed as they once again started to surround the guard yelling about how money isn't everything.

"Get off of her!" You heard people yelling, it took you a minute to realize they meant you. There would always be people who supported you but there were also people who hated you and for that reason alone is why unplanned meet-ups were the worst. You pulled back not wanting to hit the girl that was pulling your hair but there were people surrounding you now and punches and kicks were being thrown. Supporter vs haters and you were caught in the middle. You could hear your security yelling and trying to get people away that way the situation could be handled but when girls were on a mission, they didn't give up. It was moving and before you knew it you were falling along with other people.

You laid underneath a human pile, the police had been called, they showed up and you hadn't realized it until you were being lifted up. John, your personal security guard was even there and he was supposed to be in the car.

"I swear to god people can't do their jobs right." He spoke, "Bloody nose, busted lip, you're going to have a black eye, we're taking you to a hospital to make sure you're fine." He told her as he kept a secure arm around her leading her outside.

"N/Y...are you okay! Oh my god!" People were yelling as you were ushered to the car. Being stopped by a few reporters on the way.

"As you can see she isn't in the position to be talking to anyone!" He said getting them out of your way, you got in the car. The driver handed you your phone, mom...dad...management, Shawn. John could handle management, you'd see your parents soon but if you didn't call Shawn back you knew he'd freak out.

"I'm not dead." You said you're head against the window as John was talking to the police. You could hear Shawn letting out a comforting sigh. "I'm assuming the videos are already up and you've seen them?"

"Yeah, I really want to hug you right now." He mumbled, "It broke my heart to see it. You guys almost fell downstairs, did you know that?"

"No, I didn't even realize police were there until a few minutes ago." You said feeling the pain in your body kick in. "John said that we were going to a hospital."

"A hospital, how bad is it?" You could hear it in his voice, how worried he was. You looked up to see John getting in the car, he was irritated and an irritated John wasn't something you liked to see.

"I'm not sure, I'll keep you updated but I have to go, we're about to leave." You spoke, your voice weak.

"Of course, I have an interview in thirty minutes anyways. Get some rest okay, call me when you can."

---------------------------

"How do you handle a situation like that?" Selena asked she looked at her card before switching to the next one.

"I'm not sure, I was being attacked by people trying to protect me and people who wanted e hurt and it can be scary. It is scary, I was sixteen and it on a way was my first physical fight without me even fighting and to feel so defenseless in a situation like that, it absolutely sucks."

Selena nodded before looking up at you. "You're break up with Shawn happened back January and you guys announced it February before regenerated was released. Can we talk about that?" She asked you bit your lip before nodding. It would always come back to you and Shawn at the end of the day. Every interview, every met up, concerts, somewhere somebody pushed him back into your life.

#shawn mendes x reader #shawn mendes imagine #shawn peter raul mendes #shawn mendes au #shawn mendes #magcon shawn #magcon x reader #magcon imagines #magcon au #old magcon

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jerome-blog1 · 5 years ago

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Mery Christmas 2016- New York

St. Patrics Cathedral on 2016 Christmas Eve.

New York’s First Cathedral: The Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral

Written by Joyce Mendelsohn, 2001 Edited and updated by James E. Garrity, 2015

The Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral is the original Cathedral of the Archdiocese of New York. Since its construction 200 years ago on the corner of Mott and Prince, it has stood as the heart of old New York; a beacon for the Catholic faithful and an American symbol of religious freedom. Originally the center of a once impoverished Irish community, St. Patrick’s has expanded to serve a diverse community of Catholics from Italian, Hispanic, Asian, and various other origins. Today, our Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral remains a vital force in the community which proudly unites Catholics through worship, social groups and spiritual guidance.

The History of Catholicism in New York

The history of our city’s Catholicism begins in the 17th century with French-born Fr. Isaac Jogues, a Jesuit who landed in New York State. Fr. Jacques was one of the North American Martyrs sent as missionaries to the Quebec Hurons in the early 1640s. He escaped capture and torture by an Iroquois war party in 1643 with the help of Dutch Calvinists who smuggled him by boat to New Amsterdam (later renamed New York) where he was warmly welcomed as “a martyr of Jesus Christ” by Willem Kieft. Father Jogues sailed back to Europe upon learning that 18 different languages were spoken among the settlement population numbering some 500, described as having “the arrogance of Babel.” He later returned as an Iroquois missionary though he was seized and murdered in 1649 by a member of the Mohawk tribe. His canonization was in 1930 by Pope Pius XI. Peter Stuyvesant proceeded Kieft with openly hostility to public worship by religions other than the Dutch Reformed Church which remained even after the British gained control in 1664 of what became New York. The small Catholic population only gained esteem in 1674, when King James II (a Roman Catholic convert) granted religious liberty to the province which still lacked a its own place of worship. In 1683, King James II appointed an Irish Catholic Colonel Thomas Dongan to govern New York under his “Charter of Liberties and Privileges” which granted religious freedom to all Christians. However, the fall of the Catholic Stuarts in England due to the Protestant “Glorious Revolution” of 1688 drove Dongan from his post, ending the brief religious liberty in the province and ushering in a law in 1700 that prohibited Catholic priests from entering the city as per the provincial assembly. Despite these restrictions, Jesuit Ferdinand Steenmayer snuck into the city to celebrate Mass in secret on several brave occasions.

Upon the anti-Catholic law being repealed (1784) in the now sovereign state of New York, an Irish Capuchin friar Charles Whelan arrived in the city to help organize what would become the first Catholic parish in the independent United States. New York’s Catholic community numbered less than 1,000 of the total 230,000 populating the land from French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Irish descent. Nevertheless, the Roman Catholic Church in the City of New York was incorporated in 1785, led by the French consul and largely financed by a donation from King Charles III of Spain. Construction then commenced on the first Catholic house of worship in the city – St. Peter’s Church.

Opening Mass was celebrated on November 1, 1786, in the small, Georgian- style building located on the corner of Barclay and Church streets in lower Manhattan. Severely damaged in the Great Fire of 1835 (a conflagration that raged for three days and destroyed 674 buildings), the original wood frame building was replaced in 1840 by the present monumental granite structure, designed in the classicaltradition.

Pierre Toussaint And Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton

Two extraordinary parishioners are connected with St. Peter’s Church: Pierre Toussaint, who is being considered for canonization, and Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first native-born American saint.

Toussaint, born in Haiti in 1766, was brought as a slave to New York in 1787. When his owners fell upon hard times, he became a successful hairdresser, at the same time quietly waiting on and supporting the household. After the death of his owners, the former slave purchased his wife’s freedom and became a leader of the free black community in New York.

Pierre Toussaint devoted his life to aiding the poor and the sick—opening his home to black orphans, raising funds to support a Catholic orphanage and school, and entering quarantined zones to nurse victims of epidemics that ravaged the city.

Toussaint worshiped at St. Peter’s Church for sixty-six years and was buried in the cemetery of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in 1853. In 1989, his remains were removed and brought to St. Patrick’s Cathedral uptown as the first step in the cause for his beatification. Within St. Peter’s Church is a life-size marble statue of Elizabeth Ann Seton, who was born in New York in 1774 into a devout Episcopalian family. At age nineteen, Elizabeth Ann Bayley married wealthy businessman William Seton. They raised a family of five children in a gracious home at 7 State Street facing Battery Park, which is now the Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. As a young wife and mother who became deeply involved in assisting the poor, Mrs. Seton was widely known as the “Protestant Sister of Charity.” After her husband’s death, the widow—always deeply spiritual—was drawn to Catholicism and in 1805 was received into the Catholic faith at St. Peter’s Church.

Elizabeth Ann Seton turned for guidance to BishopJohnCarroll. He had been appointed as the first Bishop in the United States in 1789 and in Baltimore presided over America’s first diocese— encompassing all of the thirteen original colonies. At Bishop Carroll’s urging, she moved her family to Baltimore in 1808 to open a Catholic girls’ school—marking the beginning of the Catholic system of parochial schools in the United States. Mother Seton founded the Sisters of Charity—the first Catholic religious order in America. Her order was successful in establishing orphanages and hospitals and developing the parochial school system. Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton died at age fifty- two in 1821 and was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1975.

Father Antony Kohlmann

In response to the needs of a growing number of Catholic immigrants, Pope Pius VII established the Diocese of New York in 1808, which included all of New York State and a portion of northern New Jersey. Archbishop Carroll chose Alsatian-born Father Antony Kohlmann, along with several of his fellow Jesuits, to organize the new diocese. When Father Kohlmann arrived in the new diocese, he described the Catholic population as consisting “of Irish, some hundreds of French and as many Germans; in all according to the common estimation of 14,000 souls.” A parcel of land on Mott Street on the comer of Prince Street was chosen for the construction of New York’s first Cathedral. It was to rise on land that had been purchased in 1801 and 1803 by St. Peter’s Church for a burial ground. (The graves were removed to another site.) At the time, Canal Street was the northern boundary of the built-up portion of Manhattan. The Cathedral, erected in the midst of meadows, hills, and woodlands, was referred to as the “new church out of town.” (It was still a rural area in 1820 when a fox was caught in the churchyard!) Funds for construction came from large numbers of poor Irish immigrants—at considerable personal sacrifice—and from several wealthy Catholic laymen, including Andrew Morris (an Irish immigrant) —the first Catholic ever to be elected to public office in New York State to serve on the Common Council—and Cornelius Heeney (another immigrant from Ireland), a business partner of John Jacob Astor. On June 8, 1809, Father Kohlmann officiated before an assembled crowd of 3,000 at the laying of the cornerstone for St. Patrick’s Cathedral—the second Roman Catholic Cathedral in America (Baltimore’s Cathedral was the first) and the second Catholic church in New York (after St. Peter’s).

The new Cathedral was the first house of worship in the United States to be dedicated to Ireland’s patron saint, Saint Patrick, who organized the Irish Church in the fifth century. Known as the Apostle of Ireland, Patrick was consecrated as Bishop circa 432. He traveled tirelessly throughout Ireland, preaching, writing, and teaching, converting chiefs and bards, gathering followers, establishing churches and schools, building monasteries, and performing miracles. Since specific rules for canonization were not set down until the tenth century, local veneration of St. Patrick evolved into his sainthood.

The new Cathedral was designed by Joseph Mangin, a French-born architect and engineer, who arrived in New York in 1745 and soon established a reputation as a skilled architect and builder. In 1802, Mangin, along with native- born architect John McComb Jr., won the competition for the design of New York’s present City Hall (completed in 1812) with their plans for an exquisite French Renaissance exterior and a splendid Federal-style interior.

Mangin designed a grand and magnificent structure for St. Patrick’s Cathedral—proclaiming the strength and presence of the Catholic community as a force within the city. At the time of construction, it was the largest church building in the city—over 120 feet long and 80 feet wide and rising to a height of 75 feet with an 85-foot inner vault. The Cathedral—with its massive rough-cut stone facade punctuated by niches for statuary, pointed-arch doorways, and a large tracery-ornamented gable window—was one of the first Gothic Revival churches in America. The interior space was marked by tall, clustered iron columns that divided the body of the church into three naves surmounted by Gothic arches. Painted wall surfaces and natural light streaming through tall windows added to the spiritual quality of the interior. The Cathedral formally opened on Ascension Day, May 4, 1815, with a crowd of 4,000 worshippers and dignitaries, including Mayor DeWitt Clinton, and a greater number overflowing into the streets.

The first Bishop appointed to the diocese was Irish-born Richard Luke Concanen.The Napoleonic Wars prevented him from reaching New York and he died in Italy in 1810. The work of governing as administrator of the diocese continued to be carried out by Father Kohlmann, who devoted himself to fund raising and overseeing construction of the Cathedral. He maintained those responsibilities until the arrival in November 1815 of the second Bishop, sixty-five-year-old John Connolly, an Irish Dominican theologian who was held in high repute by both Pius VI and Pius VII. Bishop Connolly directed the construction of several new churches in the diocese and founded an orphanage in a wood-frame building at 32 Prince Street, across from the Cathedral, that was staffed in 1817 by three Sisters of Charity sent to New York by Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton. Pierre Toussaint, a leading financial supporter, generously contributed funds to the orphanage for close to forty years.

The Sisters established St. Patrick’s School in 1822. The original orphanage and school building was replaced in 1826 by the present red-brick convent and school designed in the Federal style and distinguished by an exquisite doorway of the period. For more than 180 years, the Sisters of Charity continued their tradition of service— first in the orphanage and then in St. Patrick’s School. The school had educated generations of Irish, Italian, French, Hispanic, Chinese, and German children. St. Patrick’s School boasted a distinguished roster of graduates—leaders in business, film, theater, arts, teaching, and the full spectrum of vocations and professions. The school (which had been New York’s oldest surviving parochial school) was forced to close in 2010 due to insufficient enrollment. In 1823, Bishop Connolly invited Cuban-born Fr. Felix Varela to New York to start a pastoral ministry among poor Irish immigrants, who made up the majority of the 35,000 Catholics living in the city. Father Varela—a social activist and advocate of Cuban independence—served as pastor in several diocese churches and is best remembered for his staunch support for the Irish in the face of growing anti-Catholic sentiment.

Bishop Connolly’s entire episcopacy was plagued by a severe shortage of priests. He brought Fr. Michael O’Gorman (who he ordained in Ireland before leaving for New York) with him from Ireland, and in 1820, he ordained Fr. Richard Bulger (another Irishman) to the priesthood. Father Bulger thus was the first priest to be ordained in New York City. Fathers Bulger and O’Gorman regularly traveled to New Jersey, to upstate New York, and to Brooklyn on Long Island to celebrate Masses for the Catholics there, since there were no resident priests in those locations at that time. Both Father Bulger and Father O’Gorman became ill in November of 1824 as a result of tending to the sick and dying of the diocese, and they both passed away within a week of each other at their residence on Broadway. They had been living in the same residence as Bishop Connolly, and when they died, the Bishop, who officiated at both of their burials, caught a bad cold and he died a few months later in February of 1825. Fathers O’Gorman and Bulger (and other early priests of the diocese) were buried in the courtyard in front of the church. A commemorative bronze plaque was placed upon the gravesite in 2010.

At the time of Bishop Connolly’s death, the diocese was composed mainly of working class Irish parishioners. The appointment of his successor, Fr. John Dubois—a French educator and missionary—was viewed with disappointment by the Irish community. Forced out of France in 1791 by the French Revolution, Father Dubois arrived in America with letters of introduction from the Marquis de Lafayette to James Monroe and Patrick Henry. Father Dubois settled in Virginia, where he built a church and opened a school in Emmitsburg, Maryland, that became Mount St.Mary’s College. In 1826, when he was consecrated the third Bishop of New York, there were twelve churches in the diocese for a Catholic population of about 150,000, served by only eighteen priests. By 1837, the numbers had grown to thirty-eight churches and forty priests. Plagued by ill health, Bishop Dubois requested a coadjutor. In 1838, the Rev. John Joseph Hughes was elevated to the episcopy as Bishop of Basileopolis at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and was then appointed coadjutor bishop to Dubois. In the following year, he was made administrator-Apostolic of New York. Bishop Dubois died in 1842 at the age of seventy-eight and is buried in front of the Cathedral, as he had personally requested.

St. John Neumann

Six years before his death, Bishop Dubois had welcomed a twenty- five-year-old theological student named John Neumann to the diocese. Neumann—who was canonized by Pope Paul IV in 1977 as America’s first male saint—was born in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) and attended seminary in Prague. Since his ordination had been delayed by the government, Neumann came to New York as a missionary. The young man was ordained to priesthood at St. Patrick’s on June 28, 1836, and sent to upstate New York to work among German-speaking Catholics. Renowned for his outstanding mission and pastoral work and for his holiness and charity, Neumann was appointed the fourth Bishop of Philadelphia in 1852, where he died in 1860.

The multitudes of Irish Catholics who arrived in New York in the 19th century were mainly uneducated peasants leaving behind an impoverished existence in their native homeland due to harsh British colonial rule. And, after 1845, they were also fleeing from the Great Hunger—the potato famines that killed more than one million Irish and drove some two million more to America. The new immigrants lived in squalor, crowded into rotting structures and wretched tenements, eking out a miserable living, and suffering from disease and extreme poverty. These Famine Irish turned in large numbers to the church for solace.

The fourth Bishop of St. Patrick’s, who succeeded Bishop Dubois in 1842, was himself the son of poor Irish farmers and weavers. In 1817, at age twenty, John Joseph Hughes (born in Annaloughan, County Tyrone)emigrated to the United States and briefly settled in Pennsylvania before entering Mount St. Mary’s College, where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1826. Father Hughes spent the next twelve years in Philadelphia serving as pastor of several churches and was widely admired for his skillful management, strong leadership qualities, and outspoken defense of the church. Arriving in New York in 1838, Father Hughes served first as coadjutor and later administrator-Apostolic of New York. He was appointed a bishop in 1842—the first prelate to be consecrated at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Bishop Hughes faced two daunting challenges—presiding over a diocese that was experiencing unprecedented growth and protecting Catholics and their churches from the growing hostility of native-born Protestants.

Beginning in the 1830s, the city had experienced several outbreaks of violence led by nativists against Catholics. In 1831, the tiny, wood-frame structure of St. Mary’s Church (the third Catholic church in New York, organized in 1826) on Sheriff Street was burnt to the ground by arsonists. (A substantial stone church, still standing, was built to replace it in 1833 on Grand Street.) The burning of St. Mary’s Church compelled the Trustees of the Cathedral to approve the construction of the brick wall— which surrounds the church—in 1834. Frequent brawls and street riots between Protestants and Catholics led to the founding in 1836 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (Latin for “Irish”) as a mutual benefit society and self- defense group. In the following years, nativist mobs had advanced on St. Patrick’s several times but were turned back after receiving reports that armed Irish defenders— posted by Bishop Hughes—were stationed along Prince Street and behind those brick walls which had been specifically constructed to protect the Cathedral.

In 1844, James Harper (of the famed Harper publishing family) was elected Mayor of New York as the candidate of the anti-immigrant American Republican Party. At the same time, Protestants and Irish Catholics in Philadelphia clashed in rioting that claimed the lives of some thirty Irishmen and resulted in the burning of Catholic churches and convents. Bishop Hughes vigorously defended the rights of Irish Catholics against this rising movement of bigotry and bloodshed. He organized thousands of Irish men to defend the Cathedral. As a massive anti-Catholic torchlight parade gathered in City Hall Park, ready to march up the Bowery to the Cathedral, he stationed sharpshooters on the protective walls surrounding the building. Bishop Hughes sent a letter to Mayor Harper warning that if any harm came to a single Catholic person or Catholic church, the city would be turned into “a second Moscow” (referring to the burning of Moscow during Napoleon’s invasion in 1812). The Bishop’s powerful message and forceful actions are credited with averting the anticipated violent anti-Catholic outbreak in New York.

In 1851, young men from the neighborhood around the Cathedral organized a militia regiment, known locally as the Second Regiment of Irish Volunteers. It was officially accepted as part of the New York State Militia and designated as the Sixty-Ninth Regiment. Commonly called the “Fighting Irish,” its green insignia was composed of a decorative shield flanked by two Irish wolfhounds standing on a ribbon inscribed with the Regimental motto, “Gentle When Stroked, Fierce When Provoked.” The Sixty-Ninth Regiment served in every campaign from Bull Run to Appomattox during the Civil War and fought in the Spanish-American War and the Mexican Border Campaign. Legendary hero Colonel William “Wild Bill” Donovan, chaplain Father Francis P. Duffy, and poet Joyce Kilmer were with the Regiment in bitter fighting in France during World War I. The “Fighting Sixty- Ninth” has been a fixture in the United States Army ever since and last saw action in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since 1907, the Regiment has been a unit of the New York Army National Guard.

Bishop Hughes was consecrated as Archbishop of New York in 1850 and continued a vigorous mission of building churches, schools, and hospitals. In 1842, when appointed bishop, he presided over a diocese of fifty churches, forty priests, and 200,000 Catholics. At his death in 1864, the numbers had increased to eighty-five churches, 150 priests, and a population of over 400,000 Catholics.

In a far-seeing move that many ridiculed at the time as “Hughes’ Folly,” the Archbishop proposed the construction of a new Cathedral in an undeveloped area far uptown on Fifth Avenue between 50th and 51st streets. Andrew Morris and Cornelius Heeney had purchased the rural property in 1810 on behalf of Father Kohlmann for the sum of $11,000 for the use of the Jesuit boys’ school that he had started downtown. In 1812, he established a school for girls near the boys’ school, run by the Ursuline nuns. The schools were no longer in existence when Archbishop Hughes laid the cornerstone for the new Cathedral on August 15, 1858.

During the Civil War, Archbishop Hughes served as the envoy of President Lincoln on a successful overseas mission to dissuade European countries from supporting the Confederacy. In gratitude, Lincoln petitioned Pope Pius IX to name Archbishop Hughes as America’s first Cardinal. But the death of this indomitable leader in January 1864 came before that honor could come to pass. His memory was honored by tributes from President Lincoln and other statesmen and his body viewed by over 200,000 common people who solemnly came to worship in the Cathedral. He was entombed in the crypts below the Cathedral and remained there until the “New” Cathedral was completed uptown—his remains were then removed to a crypt there in 1883. The Cathedral uptown holds the remains of all of the archbishops and cardinals that have served the Archdiocese since the death of Archbishop Hughes.

Archbishop Hughes’ successor in 1864 as the second Archbishop of the diocese was Bishop John McCloskey. He was born in Brooklyn in 1810 to Irish immigrant parents (his parents are both interred in the cemetery surrounding the Old Cathedral) and, at age eleven, entered Mount St. Mary’s College in Emmitsburg, distinguishing himself as an outstanding student. After graduation, the fifteen-year-old returned to New York with the intention of pursuing a career in law. But after a near-fatal accident in 1827, the young man decided instead to study for the priesthood. Young McCloskey was under the guardianship of Cornelius Heeney (who dedicated his fortune to the care of poor children at the end of his life), and the young man was taught Latin by Thomas S. Brady (buried in the crypts below the Cathedral). He was taught proper English elocution by Charlotte Melmoth, the first Shakespearean actress to come to America, who opened a school in Brooklyn when her acting career ended. (She was buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard cemetery surrounding the Cathedral.) McCloskey returned to Emmitsburg as a seminarian and later taught Latin at the college. In 1830, he was ordained to the priesthood at St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral and remained until 1834 before taking a leave to study in Rome. Upon his return, Father McCloskey was instrumental in starting a seminary in Nyack under Bishop Dubois. (The seminary was destroyed by fire just prior to its opening in the 1830s. Arson was suspected, but the case was never investigated fully.) Father McCloskey became the first president of St. John’s College (later renamed Fordham University), founded by Archbishop Hughes in 1841.

Reverend McCloskey served as coadjutor bishop of New York from 1844–1847 and first Bishop of Albany from 1847 to 1864 before his appointment as Bishop to the New York diocese. Later raised to archbishop, he was highly respected as a pioneer in Catholic education and a clergyman of great spiritual strength and humility. During the tenure of Archbishop McCloskey, a disaster of tragic proportions struck on the night of October 6, 1866, when a catastrophic fire destroyed all but the outer walls of the Old Cathedral.

The five-alarm fire began in the packing room (filled with straw and wood shavings) of a porcelain dealer at 44 Crosby Street and quickly spread to nearby buildings. Showers of sparks fell on the lath and plaster roof of St. Patrick’s, which was soon a blazing inferno. As huge fragments of the burning roof crashed down into the sanctuary, filling the building with flames and smoke, a crowd of parishioners, led by Fathers McGeehan and Mullen, rushed inside to remove precious religious articles. They were successful in rescuing the Blessed Sacrament, vestments, several vessels, a number of oil paintings, and silver candlesticks just moments before the entire structure was engulfed by fire.

Archbishop McCloskey resolved to rebuild the Cathedral and commissioned architect Henry Engelbert (known for his designs of the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale) to reconstruct St. Patrick’s. Engelbert designed a severely plain facade of smooth brown stucco, facing Mott Street, lacking the detail and grace of the original exterior. The splendid interior, however, was rebuilt with a ceiling of ribbed vaults and arches carried on clustered piers. An altar screen of carved figures, representing the Apostles, is surmounted by a pointed arch stained-glass window above a painting of the figure of Christ. Completed in less than two years, the Cathedral was rededicated by Archbishop McCloskey on the Feast of St. Patrick—March 17, 1868.

The foremost ecclesiastical event in the history of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral took place in the restored structure on April 27, 1875, with the investiture of Archbishop McCloskey as the first American to be named Cardinal. Several Papal emissaries, seven archbishops, twenty bishops, hundreds of priests, and thousands of laymen attended the ceremony of solemnity and celebration. After its construction was completed, His Eminence John Cardinal McCloskey moved his seat uptown to the magnificent new St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, which was formally dedicated on May 25, 1879. The historic St. Patrick’s downtown then became a simple parish church.

Since that time, the church has remained the heart of an active parish with an ever-changing population. (Parish boundaries run from Wooster Street to the Bowery, between Hester Street and East Fourth Street.) Beginning in the 1880s, Italian immigrants poured into the area centered on Mulberry Street that came to be known as Little Italy. (Earlier in the 1800s, Lorenzo Da Ponte, who had written librettos for several of Mozart’s operas, lived on Spring Street, and his opulent Funeral Mass took place in the Cathedral in August of 1838.) Large numbers of Hispanic and Chinese newcomers to America make up a significant portion of the present population. Recent years have seen the transformation of previously commercial areas, such as SoHo and NoHo, into residential communities largely populated by people in the arts and media. Currently, many young people are making the entire area their home. Their youthful energy has breathed much life into St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral parish.

As the 200th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of the Old Cathedral approached, Msgr. Donald Sakano, who had been appointed pastor of the venerable church in 2007, began to plan for what would be a six-year Bicentennial Celebration (since it took six years for the church o be completed in the early 1800s). Monsignor Sakano marshaled the assistance of historians familiar with church and city history as well as people in the parish community for the purpose of putting together a celebration that would highlight the great history of the church.

A slogan for the Bicentennial Celebration (which we are currently in the midst of) was selected: “Embracing the future as we celebrate our past.”

The Bicentennial Celebration of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral began with a Mass celebrated by His Excellency, Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of New York, held in the Old Cathedral on June 7, 2009, commemorating the 200th anniversary of the laying of the church’s cornerstone. Various church and civic leaders attended Mass and the related events. A parade was held in which, among other events, (a) the Ancient Order of Hibernians, or “AOH,” marched to the church and stood shoulder-to-shoulder around its perimeter wall in commemoration of the AOH’s defense of the church against physical attack by the nativist, anti-Catholic “Know-Nothings” at the request of then-Bishop (later Archbishop) “Dagger John” Hughes and (b) the April 1861 parade of the famed “Fighting 69th” regiment—a unit of the Irish Brigade—as it marched off to the Civil War was re-enacted.

At that same June 7, 2009, Mass celebrating the laying of the cornerstone of the church, Archbishop Dolan announced from the pulpit that an application would be made to the Holy See requesting that St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral be awarded basilica status. This honor is bestowed upon churches that have historical or other kinds of significance for the Catholic Church and which affords certain ceremonial privileges for a church so honored.

It did not take a long time for the application to be honored; His Excellency Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan announced from the altar of the “new” Cathedral at the annual St. Patrick’s Day Mass on March 17, 2010, that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI had awarded Basilica status to the Old Cathedral, effective (fittingly) on March 17, 2010.

All of the people who have had connections over the years with the Old Cathedral are rightfully proud to learn that this wonderful old church has been so honored by His Holiness Pope Benedict. Old St. Patrick’s is the only church within The Archdiocese of New York to have ever attained Basilica status—a fitting honor for such a historically and ecclesiastically significant edifice within the great City of New York.

Deeply rooted in the community, The Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral continues its tradition of providing for the spiritual needs of Catholics of all ages. In 2013, the Basilica once again became a place where Roman Catholics could be buried on the island of Manhattan. A columbarium was erected early in the year for the purpose of accepting the cremated remains of parishioners and friends of the Basilica, and more columbaria are in the building stages as of this writing. Once again, Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral is an honored burial place for the faithful departed of New York City—the exact purpose that the pioneer Catholic community of New York City had originally intended for the land when it was purchased in 1801.

Posted by Zahidur Rahman ( Will be back soon ) on 2016-12-26 06:02:29

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