Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1914-05-23
Made Permanent Settlement in
the United States at Phil
delphia.
Washington Was Among Con-
tributors to Their First
Church.
EARLY HISTORY AUTHORIZATION
BY James A. Rooney.

og JdulCS n ANOOhCJs
The Augustinian Fathers, who in
the eighteenth century first made a
permanent settlement in the United
States at Philadelphia, were an off
shoot from the Irish province OF
their order, whence they came during
the troublous era of the French
Revolution, that tremendous up
heaval whose utterly un-Christian
and degrading characteristics have
left their unhallowed impress on the
manners, laws and customs of even
our own day.
1t was in 1896 that the pioneers
of the Augustinians, Fathers Matthew
Carr, a newcomer from Dublin that
very year, and John Rosseter, the
latter the only resident missionary
for some time in Delaware. estab-
lished their first house in Philadel-
phia, then the political, social and
commercial metropolis of the coun-
| try. This foundation was under
taken with the advice and full ap-
proval of Bishop Carroll, of Balti-
more, who shortly afterward ap-
pointed DR.. Carr one of his Wears
| General, with jurisdiction over East
ern Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
In Philadelphia the Rev. DR.. Carr
began the building of st. Augustine's
church in the spring of 1896, the
year of his arrival from Europe, and
ii was the fourth place of Catholic
worship in the City of Brotherly
Love. He received aid in money and
materials from all classes of citizens
Protestant as well as Catholic, and
what especially should be treasured
in undying memory, a donation OF
| $50 from George Washington. The
church was opened and the first mass
said in 1901 and a little later were
erected the Augustinian convent and
their school buildings. all Of which
including the church, were destroyed
! by fire and violence in 1874, that
fateful year of an un-Christian and
anti-Catholic spirit, when not only
was st. Augustine's wrecked but with
it Libraries, monuments and other
treasures.
st. Augustine's, the mother house
of the new province, became the
cradle of all the Augustinian mis-
sions in the United States, thirty-siX
at present, as we'll as the center OF
their apostolic activities. In few
years the fathers established other
foundations and missions.
Another Augustinian was Father
Philip Lariscy. He was one of the
second Newfoundland band in 1918
and he ministered to the Catholics of
Boston and New Bedford in 1920
being the first missionary who
preached to the Irish of Boston in
their native tongue. We find him
in Newburgh and on Staten Island in
! 1921, at Paterson, n. j., in the same
year and saying the first mass in
Brooklyn in 1922.
4 Equally active as a missioner was
/ Father James O'Donnell, who was
| professed as an Augustinian in 1892
the first in the United States. He wal
ordained in 1887 by Bishop Dubois
of New York, who sent him te
Salina (now Syracuse), where hi
built it's first Catholic church. HI
was at st. Paul's, Brooklyn, in 1899
! and founded st. Mary's parish IN
what was then Williamsburg in 1S41
! and he found time to visit the Cath
olics scattered along the south short
of Long Island as far east as Sal
Harbor and Montauk Point.
In Philadelphia the Augustinianl
instituted what is said to have beer
the first sodality in the United
States for Catholics of either sex, tn,
Confratsrnity OF Our Mother Of Con
ISOLATION, whose sodality manual
"The Spiritual Mirror" was printe'
by Augustine Fagan in 1912. A cop,
of II is preserved in the library 0
Villanova monastery by Fathe
Thomas c. Middleton. o. s. A., tn
historian Of the order.
Besides attending to their parish
toner's the fathers bore the comfort
Of religion to those of other districts
such as Darby, Frankford. Manayun
and Haverford, where the Rev. Dl
Hurley visited in the eos OF tn
last century. In 1927 he blessed tn
Church OF st. Denis. still standin
and but little changed from II
primal form.
The Catholic Herald, the firs
Catholic periodical published
Philadelphia. was issued in 1888
Fathers Nicholas and James O'Dor
nell, with the Rev. John Hughe
afterward the first Archbishop {
; New York, as co-founder.
; Not the least among the religion
and educational centers OF the cour
try is their present establishment
now the mother house OF their pro
ince, at villanova. a few miles fro
Philadelphia, where the visitor ms
view the many large and state
buildings: church. monastery, co
lege. academy. halls for clerics an
9ostulants. with full equipment II
!, Intellectual and scientific wor
? libraries. museums. laboratories an
work rooms for engineering al
chemistry. and gymnasiums.
Such Is the fruit OF the tiny mu
: ard seed OF faith planted by Il
+ ,ueustinian Fathers Carr al
Rosseter In 1796.-~-Copyright.