page_title: John McElroy (Jesuit)
section_title: Frederick
hierarchical_section_title: John McElroy (Jesuit) / Frederick
caption_attribution_description: English: St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Frederick, Maryland.
context_page_description: John McElroy, S.J., was born in Ireland in 1782, and emigrated to the United States in 1803. McElroy enrolled in Georgetown University in 1806, the same year in which he joined the Society of Jesus as a lay brother. His brother Anthony also became a Jesuit. Fr. McElroy assumed the management of Georgetown's financial affairs. He was ordained a priest in 1817. In 1822 he was sent to Frederick, Maryland, where he was to remain for 23 years as pastor of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in downtown Frederick. It was in Frederick that he founded St. John's Literary Institution. During the Mexican–American War, McElroy served as an Army chaplain, and on his return from Mexico he went to Boston, where he established Boston College and Boston College High School.
context_section_description: One of McElroy's first known interactions with the Catholic community in Frederick, Maryland, was around 1804 when he gave money to Fr. John Dubois, the pastor in Frederick, to support St. John the Evangelist Church.
  In 1822, Dubois' successor Fr. Maleve fell ill. McElroy travelled to Frederick to minister to him in illness and was with him when he died on 3 October. A letter was sent by a number of prominent gentlemen from Frederick to the superior of the Jesuits at Whitemarsh, Maryland, requesting the services of Fr. McElroy in Frederick. and in 1822 he was appointed pastor there.
  McElroy set to work immediately to expand the congregation. In 1823 he began negotiations with the Sisters of Charity in Emmitsburg, Maryland, for the establishment of a school for girls in Frederick. In 1824, the St. John's Benevolent Female Free School was founded by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph at 200 East Second Street in Frederick. In 1825, McElroy set to work replacing the structure that housed the school, a pre-American Revolution log cabin, with a modern building large enough to also house an orphanage.  The money raised for construction was primarily accomplished due to support of the orphanage.
  McElroy's next task was to found an educational institution for boys.  On 7 August 1828, the construction of St John's Literary Institute began.  The following year the construction was completed and the school was opened, a school which is currently operating under the name of Saint John's Catholic Prep.
  In 1833 McElroy worked with John Tehan, a well-known local architect, to create a plan for a new church. St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church was consecrated on 26 April 1837, the first Roman Catholic Church consecrated in what was then the United States. When the Church was completed it was the largest parish Church in the United States of America.
caption: St John the Evangelist Church, Frederick, Maryland
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "COOLPIX S8200  V1.0", "Image DateTime": "2012:05:30 16:41:55", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2262", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "7308", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9417", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/200", "EXIF FNumber": "38/5", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Standard Output Sensitivity", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "7/2", "EXIF FocalLength": "7", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3260", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3956", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "7172", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "6221CD405E5C43C6955D6AE189CF613A", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "3562"}