We interrupt your regularly scheduled history programming (which I would love to hear your thoughts about the three installments so far) to bring you this special announcement:

We're Expecting!!!

Baby #4 is due a little after Christmas. Which in my case will probably mean January.

This baby is a lot of firsts for us.
The first baby to be born in Amelia Hill House.
The first winter baby (like send all the tips for surviving a postpartum in the middle of a Minnesota winter!)
The first baby where I get to have the same care provider as a prior birth.
The first baby who will be born in the middle of our homeschool year.

I love that even this many kids in, the firsts keep rolling and it's still exciting.

Kids reactions were as follows:

John and Therese - fist pumps, whoops, hollers, bets on gender (guess which one John wants so bad!)
Felicity - "No....no baby...................tummy?"

So she's getting there.

I'm feeling pretty good. The early pregnancy fatigue means these late night rehearsals are kicking my butt. And it's not even Tech weeks yet! (For non-theater speaking people: Tech is when you add in all the costumes, lights, and sound, and make your actors stay very late very frequently. It's the period where everyone starts to hate each other just a little bit. It's the necessary time before the show opens and suddenly we all LOVE this cast and NEVER want it to end! It's a thing.)

This baby and Felicity will be just slightly further apart than John and Therese. I liked that spacing so hopefully it works well again.

It's going to be quite the Christmas season this year!

Delaware to Georgia - Cool Historic Catholics of America

From left to right: the cemetery at Coffee Run, Delaware (site of the Fr. Kenny house), prayer card for the cause of Antonio Cuipa - martyr of La Florida, and Fr. Ignatius Lissner, S.M.A.

All of the following examples of Cool Historic Catholics lived in times of transition. We're going to touch on a little of what life was like for a Catholic living in the British colonies and the early United States, our ancestors who were martyred for their faith in La Florida, and another part of the story of combating racial injustice during the early part of the 20th century.

Delaware - Fr. Patrick Kenny

We're going back to Colonial America!
Your experience as a Catholic living in the American Colonies was highly dependent on in which colony you lived. In only four of the original colonies were Catholics not suppressed, banned, or under civil disabilities by 1785: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware. Anti-Catholic sentiment, and restricting laws, didn't loosen in most colonies until the Revolutionary War made the new Americans rather dependent on the Catholic French. (Funny how easy it is to hate a group until you need them.)

Surprisingly, despite this history of being somewhat of a haven for non-Protestants, Delaware had very few people to appear in my search! So we're going to talk about an early priest who is notable not so much by what he did, but by the records he left behind.

In the Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia from 1896, there is found a biography, and excerpts from the diary, of Fr. Patrick Kenny.

Fr. Patrick Kenny was born in Ireland in 1763, and arrived at the port of Wilmington, Delaware in the summer of 1804. The heat of American summer was overwhelming, and the priest immediately tried to secure passage back home on the same ship. But a full passenger list thwarted his plans. So he began life as an itinerant priest.

Itinerant priests were very common in the early days of the US. Catholic communities were often sparse and spread far apart from each other. Most were poor farmers and could not afford to support a priest alone. Priests came exclusively from overseas, as the first Catholic seminary in the US was not founded until 1822 - leaving the total number of priests in the dozens to serve thousands spread throughout the land. These priests lived by going from community to community. Most stayed for a time with various Catholic families, and communities paid a small subscription to the priest to come and say mass and perform sacraments for their community. Masses at this time were often performed in homes.

Fr. Kenny regularly attended five stations, and one church, spread between two states (Delaware and Pennsylvania). After a few years of living this essentially homeless life, Fr. Kenny bought a farm, located at Coffee Run, in 1808 from the Jesuits. The order had been under papal suppression since 1773, and were unable to staff their US mission areas (which is a much longer story for another time!) Fr. Kenny decided that the old Jesuit mission could be used as a future center to serve the Catholics of Delaware.

It was at Coffee Run that the first Catholic church was established in Delaware. It was a log mission church built in 1790. The cemetery was established then, and it is all that remains of the original site today due to arson.

His diary gives a real, rough, picture of what life was like for those early priests. They were constantly moving, working in rough conditions, and managing many different communities. Small as the American Catholic community was, they managed to have their fair share of controversies and struggles. Itinerant priests could find themselves stuck in the middle of a fight that both exasperated them and they felt responsibility for settling.  Sickness was frequent, food often short, and the weather hard.

Fr. Kenny died in 1840 at the age of 79 following a stroke, and was buried at Coffee Run - next to the church he had pastored for nearly 40 years.

Florida - Martyrs of La Florida

We tend to think of the American story as starting in 1607 with Jamestown, Virginia, but the American Catholic story in Florida begins much earlier.
A Spanish mission in St. Augustine, Florida was founded in 1565, but the Dominican order attempted to start a mission near Tampa Bay in 1549.

In total there are 54 martyrdom events of La Florida under investigation. Some are for one martyr, others are for multiple martyrs. The specific events under Vatican investigation start with the Dominicans in 1549 and end with the martyrdom of three Apalachee natives killed protecting the Eucharist in 1761.

Although there were diocesan priests serving in La Florida at the time, all of the Proto-martyrs (between 1549 and 1597) were members of three Catholic orders: Dominican, Jesuit, or Franciscan. 1647 marks the date that native Christians began to be martyred, starting in Apalachee.

1697 to 1707 were particularly bloody. Many massacres, brutal attacks, and destruction of many missions. This period includes the lead martyr for the causes of the Martyrs of La Florida - Antonio Cuipa. He was an Apalachee layman particularly devoted to St. Joseph who would die tied to a cross in an English led raid in 1704.

Reasons for attacks on missions and Christians varied. Sometimes it was neighboring tribes who objected to the new religion for a variety of reasons, but many were due to slave raids. Growing English presence in the north led to a growing demand for slave labor. Tribes raiding each other for slaves to sell were frequent.

When the Catholic Church investigates martyrdom events, she requires all documents to be sealed during the investigation. I'm looking forward to learning more from the historical sources when they become available as this case moves forward. I encourage you to see the website for the martyrdom cause as they go into as much detail as is available for each of the 54 martyrdom events.

Georgia - Fr. Ignatius Lissner, S.M.A.

This is the story of a French born Catholic priest who would be a game changer for black Catholics in the US.

Ignatius was born in the Alsace region of France in 1867. His father was the descendant of Polish Jews, and he had converted to Catholicism. Out of the nine children in Ignatius' family, five would grow up to enter Church service. Ignatius was drawn to the priesthood early. He entered minor seminary and would continue his theology studies at the major seminary in Leon. He was ordained in 1891 at the age of 24.

Fr. Lissner was ordained a member of the Society of African Missions - a missionary society dedicated to serving the people of Africa and people of African descent throughout the world. His first assignment was in Whydah in the Kingdom of Dahomey (now Benin). Much of the documentation from this period has been lost. We know he stayed in Whydah about five years, he began traveling through the US and Canada raising funds for the Society in 1897, and was assigned to Egypt in 1899. In 1901, he would be sent back to the United States.

At this time the United States was classified as a mission territory by the Catholic Church (it would remain so until 1908.) There was slowly growing infrastructure to support the immigrant Catholic population, but Fr. Lissner quickly noticed the lack of care for African-American Catholics. The Holy See decided to take action by instructing the Bishop of Savannah-Atlanta to use the Society of African Missions to provide the needed pastoral care. The bishop called up Fr. Lissner.

In 1915 a bill came before the Georgia legislature that would have made the education of black children by white teachers illegal. The Catholic schools in Savannah at the time were served by Franciscan sisters - who were all white. To avoid closing the schools, Fr. Lissner proposed a new religious congregation of black sisters to the Bishop. This would become Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary. Under the leadership of Elizabeth Barbara Williams, who took the name Mother Theodore, the order was open to Catholic women regardless of race. However the bill that inspired their founding did not pass, and after struggling to survive in Georgia, the sisters relocated to New York where they found a home in Harlem.

At this time there was no seminary in the United States that would accept a black candidate. Fr. Lissner saw establishing a black clergy as part of his mission. With funds from St. Mother Katherine Drexel, S.B.S., a property was purchased in New Jersey, and St. Anthony's Mission was established in 1921. Fr. Lissner recruited six black candidates, all of whom graduated and were ordained. However, they experienced so much prejudice and hate in their congregations - all of them ended up serving outside of the United States. Those same forces led to the seminary's closure in 1927.

 As the Society expanded to the West Coast, it became apparent the work serving the blacks of America could not be staffed by Europeans alone. Fr. Lissner began working on establishing a fully functioning region of the Society of African Mission in the US. A novitiate and seminary were constructed in New Jersey in 1938, and the Society in the United States was moved to the status of a full province in 1941. Fr. Lissner was the first provincial superior.
World War II caused recruitment to be nearly impossible due to the draft, and travel restrictions made the work of a missionary society difficult even within the US. Fr. Lissner saw the Society through the challenges of WWII, including the burning down of the seminary in 1943.

Fr. Lissner retired as provincial superior in 1946 due to age and illness. He died in Teaneck, New Jersey on August 7, 1948.

Make sure to check back on the series announcement post for links to the other installments of the series, and a refresher on the criteria I used to create this list.

California to Connecticut - Cool Historic Catholics of America

Welcome back for more Cool Historic Catholics of America! Today we're adding in California, Colorado, and Connecticut with three amazing women. They are all very different, but they all exemplify how sometimes you might need to get creative to live your vocation.

Mother Antonia, Julia Greeley, and Nazarena of Jesus

California - Mother Antonia

Born to a privileged family in 1926 as Mary Clarke, and raised in Beverly Hills, CA, Mother Antonia had a heart for service from a young age. She participated with her family in a variety of help programs, both international and domestic.

She first married at 18, would eventually be married twice, and raised seven children. She continued to feel a strong call to serve the needy and remained heavily involved in charitable work - while also running her deceased father's business and raising said seven children.

In a documentary made about her life (Faith Inside the Walls) Mother Antonia speaks about a dream she had in 1969. In this dream Jesus appeared to her and offered to take her place. She refused his offer and tells him that she will never leave him. During the 1970s she would choose to devote her life to the Church in part because of this dream.

Within just a few years, she was again divorced, sold her home and possessions, and moved to Tijuana, Mexico to serve the prisoners there full time. She moved into a 10 x 10 cell in the women's wing of La Mesa penitentiary.

As a divorced woman, and being past the age of admittance to most orders, Mother Antonia found herself unable to join most religious orders. So she took private vows, with permission of the bishop, and donned a religious habit.
After a year of serving in this way, her work came to the attention of the bishops of Tijuana and nearby San Diego. The Bishop of Tijuana made her an auxiliary Mercedarian (an order devoted to prisoners) making her a sister at the age of 50.

 After receiving multiple requests to join Mother Antonia and follow in her footsteps, The Eudist Servants Of The Eleventh Hour religious community was founded in 1997 at the urging of diocesan leaders in Tijuana. Accepted by the Bishop of Tijuana in 2003, the order is for older women who feel the call to serve God later in life "a kind of “encore” dedicated to Our Lord."

Mother Antonia is remembered for her ever present smile and love for everyone. She was known to get in the middle of prison riots and diffuse tensions. In a quote to the Washington Post, Mother Antonia said "“Pleasure depends on where you are, who you are with, what you are eating. Happiness is different. Happiness does not depend on where you are. I live in prison. And I have not had a day of depression in 25 years. I have been upset, angry. I have been sad. But never depressed. I have a reason for my being.”

A period of declining health forced her to move out of the prison and into a local home in Tijuana. She died on October 17, 2013 at the age of 86.

Colorado - Julia Greeley - Servant of God

Born into slavery in Missouri sometime in the 1840s, Julia had a very hard early life. She was physically abused, lost an eye during a beating, and became permanently lame. Freed after the Civil War, Julia worked as a housekeeper and nanny. She moved to Denver to follow a job offer by a Mrs. Dickenson. Mrs. Dickenson who would eventually marry William Gilpin - the first territorial governor of Colorado.

Mrs. Dickenson was a devout Catholic and it was through her influence that Julia converted to the Catholic faith. Julia had a faith that would become legendary in Denver. Associated with Sacred Heart parish since it's establishment in 1879, Julia was a daily communicant.

She had a particular devotion to the poor, children, and for firemen (who worked a particularly dangerous job in the 19th century.) She was known to visit every single firehouse in the city of Denver monthly, distributing Sacred Heart leaflets. There was not a single fireman, Catholic or not, in the city of Denver that didn't know Julia. All of this despite not being able to read, write, or even count, herself.

She was constantly visiting the poor and begging for their needs. Her charity knew no bounds. She would often deliver her charitable gifts at night and in secret as she learned that many white families were embarrassed to be seen accepting charity from a black woman. She was frequently seen carrying coal and groceries to needy families, despite being so poor herself she needed assistance from the city charity department for her own fuel and groceries.
She was victimized multiple times by charity fraud, but her obituary remembers that "Julia’s rule seemingly was that it was better to give than to be too careful and deny assistance to someone who needed it."

Her love for children was well known. Julia was always up for taking care of babies, and she was trusted by all in Denver. She was remembered as a loving nanny for her many little charges over the years. The only known photograph of her, taken in 1916, shows Julia cradling a child.

Julia died on June 7, 1918, fittingly on the feast of the Sacred Heart to which she was so devoted. Her funeral attracted huge crowds as people from all over the city came to pay their respects to "the woman with the wide winged spirit."

Connecticut - Nazarena of Jesus

Born Julia Crotta in Glastonbury, Connecticut on October 15, 1907, this is a story of the talented girl next door who was called to a rare vocation.

The seventh child of Italian immigrants, Julia showed a talent for music. She started her studies at the Hartford Conservatory and moved on to study piano and and violin at Yale. She would leave Yale for a small Catholic school, to the dismay of the Yale music school dean, after an event her junior year that changed everything.

Julia is not remembered as a particularly devout person as a youngster. When a Dominican nun invited her to a Holy Week retreat in her junior year, her agreement to go was reluctant. It was an event in the chapel as she prayed alone in the evening of Good Friday that changed her life. She had a mystical experience in which she felt distinctly that Jesus was calling her into the desert.

She would spend years trying to discover what was this desert.

Julia finished college, and found work as a secretary. With her spiritual director she tried to understand this call to the desert. She tried the Carmelites of Rhode Island but find that found that was not the right fit. Her spiritual director sent her to Rome to wait for God to show his plan for her life. She tried the Camaldolese monastery, but felt restless. The superior advised her to try the Carmelites of Rome, where she would remain for five years - through the harsh trials of World War II.

The day before she would pronounce final vows for the Carmelites - Julia decided to leave the order.

She found work in a soup kitchen, but her spiritual director had an idea that Julia should enter the Camaldolese again - but not as a novice. This time as a "private recluse".

The private recluse, or anchoress, is an ancient custom and traditional to the Camaldolese order. But typically only after a number of years in the order, and even then only with special permission. The vocation is rare, almost unheard of outside of the Middle Ages.

A priest friend of Julia's arranged for her to have a private audience with Pope Pius XII. The Pope looked over the one page document that described Julia's proposed rule for her future life.

“Isn’t it a bit too rigid?” he asked, “I wish it were even more so!” Julia responded. The Pope smiled and said, “If this is the rule by which you wish to live, then take it as it is.”

On November 21, 1945, Julia entered the Camadolese monestery as a recluse - taking the name Nazarena of Jesus. She was restricted to a single cell, never allowed herself an idle moment, and attended mass and received food through a grille. She never spoke a word to anyone, except for once a year when she spoke to her spiritual director. These direction sessions could last for hours - with Nazarena talking all day.
She died in the monastery on February 7, 1990 at the age of 82.

Nazarena of Jesus, nee Julia Crotta, isn't remarkable because of the strictness and rigor of her eventual vocation - although it is that. I find her remarkable because she persisted in pursuing her vocation. Despite many false leads, dead ends, years of waiting, and last minute changes. This was not a girl who always dreamed of becoming a nun. She was called to a medieval vocation as a talented, educated, modern Catholic woman. Yet she still said yes. Even to the improbable.

Make sure to check back to the announcement post and scroll down to see other installment of the series!