page_title: Patrick Francis Healy
section_title: Education
hierarchical_section_title: Patrick Francis Healy / Early life / Education
caption_attribution_description: English: Rev. Patrick Francis Healy, S.J.
context_page_description: Patrick Francis Healy was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit who became an important president of Georgetown University, resulting in his being known as its "second founder." Though readily passing as white and self-identifying as such, Healy would be posthumously recognized as the first black American to earn a Ph.D., to become a Jesuit, and to become the president of a predominantly white university.
  Born in Georgia, Healy was legally a slave by birth, as his mother was one-eighth black and his father was a white Irish immigrant, who, in the eyes of the law, owned his wife and children as slaves. Desiring to remove him from such conditions, Healy's father sent him north to be educated, first in New York and then at the College of the Holy Cross. Raised in a family that produced many Catholic leaders, Healy decided to become a priest, and entered the Society of Jesus. After his initial studies and teaching, he was sent to Europe to continue his higher education. In 1864, he received his doctorate in philosophy from the Catholic University of Louvain, and returned to Georgetown University to become the chair of philosophy.
context_section_description: As slaves under the law, the Healy children were prohibited from attending school in Georgia. Wishing to remove his children from their conditions of slavery in Georgia, Michael Healy sent all of his children to be educated in the North. At the time of his death in August 1850, he also intended to join them in the north. Healy was at first unable to find a school in the north that would accept his children, resulting from anti-Catholic and anti-Irish bigotry. However, he eventually found a Quaker school in Flushing, New York (now a neighborhood of Queens), called the Flushing Quaker Academy, that allowed the three oldest sons to enroll.
  Like three of his brothers, Patrick Healy continued his education at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts. He graduated in 1850, at the age of 16, and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts by Georgetown University, as Holy Cross had not yet been chartered and conferred degrees under Georgetown's charter. After graduating, Healy entered the Society of Jesus on September 17, 1850, at the novitiate in Frederick, Maryland. While he worried that his mixed race would present an obstacle to his entrance into the Jesuit order, this proved less of a concern than the fact because Healy's parents were never legally married in the eyes of the church, he was born out of wedlock. While under canon law, Healy required a dispensation to join the order, none was ever sought and he was admitted without issue. With his admission to the Society of Jesus, he became the first black American Jesuit.
  After two years of study, Healy professed his first vows, and was sent to teach at Saint Joseph's College in Philadelphia. The following year, he was transferred to Holy Cross. While teaching there, he found that some students who knew his brothers learned of his racial background and made disparaging comments about him in secret. In 1858, Healy went to Georgetown University, where he taught philosophy and theology.
  The Jesuit superiors at Georgetown were impressed by his skill in philosophy, and decided to send him to Europe, where he continued his study of philosophy and theology. He first went to Rome, but during the winter, his health declined, and he was sent to Belgium to continue his studies at the Catholic University of Louvain. While there, he was ordained a priest on September 3, 1864. He also became fluent in Latin, French, Italian, and German. On July 26, 1865, he received a Doctor of Philosophy in philosophy, making him the first black American ever to earn a Ph.D.
caption: Portrait of Healy seated
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