Archives for February 2021

A September 3 editorial in The Catholic Telegraph, likely written by Father Edward Purcell (Archbishop Purcell’s brother), calls for the emancipation of the slaves, the most public declaration by a Catholic newspaper: “The mark of nobility, the image and likeness of God is stamped upon every soul with equal distinctness.”

Father Joseph Dwenger, C.PP.S., founds the St. Charles Seminary in Carthagena, Ohio, to educate priests and brothers for the Congregation of the Precious Blood. It closed in 1969 and is now a retirement home for religious and laity.

During the construction of Holy Cross Immaculata Church in Mount. Adams, the faithful begin the practice of “praying the steps” — one Hail Mary on each step and one Our Father on each landing — as they climb the hill to the church. This popular tradition continues to this day, particularly during the Holy Triduum.

The Franciscan Fathers arrive in Cincinnati to establish a community. Their parish ministry begins with St. John the Baptist Church and St. Francis Seraph, both in Over-the-Rhine. They quickly established a seminary and schools throughout the area. Cincinnati becomes home to the St. John the Baptist Province. Also that same year, the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor found St. Mary’s Hospital, the second Catholic hospital in Cincinnati.

On the night of August 20, the newly built Holy Angels Church in Sidney, Ohio, is destroyed by gunpowder. While the people who carried out this destructive act were never discovered,  it is believed that the Know Nothings were the perpetrators.

While on a tour of the United States, Archbishop Gaetano Bedini stops in Cincinnati. On Christmas night, hundreds of rioters gather around St. Peter in Chains cathedral, protesting any influence of the Vatican in America. One rioter dies in the protest.