ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY of the CATHOLIC GERMANS in MARYLAND by CHARLES R

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC GERMANS IN MARYLAND By CHARLES R. GELLNER There is a rather sharply defined be- requesting a German church, German ginning to the development of Catholic catechism and even a German bishop. German church life in Maryland. Be- An unfavorable reply was given him on fore 1840 not much of importance was each count. Rome obviously preferred accomplished by the Catholics of Ger- to leave the solution of the difficulty in man extraction but in that year they Bishop Carroll's hands. Meanwhile, were committed to the charge of the Reuter returned to Baltimore and with Redemptorists who initiated almost all his fellow-Germans established, October the constructive measures undertaken. 11, 1799, the first Catholic German Finally, since the Germans were en- church in Baltimore, at Park Avenue trusted to the Redemptorists, the growth and Saratoga Street, dedicated to St.. of the German parishes is intimately John the Evangelist.1 Unfortunately, associated with the history of that order the whole movement was schismatic.2 in Maryland, and more especially in The breach was healed, however, by Baltimore. By the time the parishes 1805 when the parish returned to the nurtured by the Redemptorists passed jurisdiction of the bishop and Father into the hands of diocesan or other Reuter was replaced by the Reverend clergy the Americanization of the Ger- F. X. Brosius.3 mans had far progressed and, when that The entire episode did not augur well occurs, we may, for the purposes of this for the felicitous blending of German study, sharply curtail the treatment of and American life. If the intentions of their recent history. Father Reuter and others of his ilk had The beginnings of the Maryland Ger- prevailed, the Catholic Germans would man Catholics were in general insignifi- have remained for a long time a sort cant and inauspicious. About a decade of self-contained ship in an alien sea after the founding of the episcopal see and the amalgamation of German and of Baltimore in 1789 a small band of American culture would have been in- Catholic Germans appeared in Balti- definitely delayed. Happily, the upshot more and was ministered to by Father was quite to the contrary. F. Caesar Reuter of St. Peter's; which The parish of St. John's under dio- was then the residence of Bishop John cesan priests—except for a short period Carroll and the headquarters of the dio- under a Jesuit—pursued an even tenor cese. Soon Father Reuter, against Bishop for the next forty years, gradually grow- Carroll's wishes, urged his compatriots ing in size. By 1840 the pastor, Rever- to erect a separate German church. The end Benedict Bayer, recognized that he bishop protested that there were too few was incapable of reaching all his par- Germans to support a pastor and that it ishioners (about 4,000) scattered over might interfere with his plans to erect the city. As a student in Switzerland a cathedral. Disgruntled, Reuter carried he had learned to admire the members the matter to Rome, accusing Carroll of of the Congregation of the Most Holy trying to Americanize the Germans and Redeemer4 and he magnanimously de- 1 Peter Guilday, The Life and Times of John Carroll, II, 723-728 (New York, 1922). 2 Archdiocesan Archives, Baltimore, Reuter to Carroll, September 4, 1801; November 25, 1801; October 18, 1802. Documents 7A8, 7A9, 7A10. Profession of submission drawn up by Carroll to be signed by Reuter. Document 9G2. 3 Cf. St. Alphonsus' Church, Zur Erinnerung an die Centenar-Feier der St. Alphonsus Gemeinde (Baltimore, 1900). 4 Congregatio Sanctissimi Redemptoris. A society of missionary priests and lay brothers, founded by St. Alphonsus Liguori at Scala, Italy, 1732. The only permanent settlement the Redemptorists could make among Germans was in Austria, whither applicants came from all over Germany for admission. The first German Redemptorists in America landed in 1832 and were stationed in the diocese of Cin- cinnati. Cf. Editors of the "Katholische Volks-Zeitung," Zum Andenken an die Goldene Jubelfeier der Hochw. Herren Redemptoristen-Vater in Nord-Amerika (Baltimore, 1882). [37] termined to tender his resignation to the it was dedicated to the Immaculate Con- Most Reverend Samuel Eccleston, the ception in honor of St. Alphonsus, the Archbishop of Baltimore, with the founder of the Redemptorists, by Arch- understanding that the Redemptorists bishop Eccleston. The pure gothic should succeed him. The prelate agreed structure, a landmark familiar to all on these terms: Baltimoreans, was a center of fervent "1. That they (the Redemptorists) German activity for many years until assume charge of the German Catholics the encroaching business section drove of our archiepiscopal city and of the the parishioners to other residential dis- whole diocese, employing for this pur- tricts. In 1917 St. Alphonsus' was pose a sufficient number of German turned over to the Lithuanians who still priests who are qualified and compe- have it.8 tent missionaries. Concerning St. Alphonsus' parish, "2. That on the same site on which the United States Catholic Magazine of St. John's Church now stands, they October, 1847, reported: "But what we build a larger church and a house large principally designed in this notice, was enough for the training of students or to call the attention of the public to the novices of the same society. new schoolhouse now in process of com- "3. That in the same place they build pletion, under the direction of the Re- a school for the Germans." 5 demptorists, in Saratoga Street, directly Thus at one stroke all the German opposite their beautiful church. Catholics had been commended to the The school is so arranged as to accom- superintendence of one religious order. modate male and female scholars with Almost immediately the Redemptorists separate rooms, and already counts plunged into the task of rearing their large classes of German children of church, novitiate and school. While St. both sexes." John's was being razed, the congregation In other words, the first real advance had to find shelter elsewhere for its of the Catholic Germans in Baltimore liturgical functions. The Irish church was made with a strong stride, although of Old St. James' on Aisquith and Eager the road stretched far beyond the hori- Streets in Old Town (East Baltimore) zon and they had just begun to travel. was being vacated at this time for new Over in Old Town the Redemptorists quarters on Front Street (St. Vincent's) stimulated the feeble life of St. James' and Archbishop Eccleston kindly ex- parish, established a novitiate for tended the use of its facilities to the Re- newly arriving Redemptorist candidates demptorists and the flock of St. John's from Germany who were to finish their for the "perpetual use of the Ger- scholastic work in this country, and mans."6 Thus was started what was welcomed Father Joseph Helmpraecht later to prove the most flourishing and from Altoetting, Bavaria, who later be- intensely German parish in the entire came the Baltimore provincial of the archdiocese. A home was arranged at Redemptorists, and also Father John St. James' for the community and in Nepomucene Neumann, from Pitts- October of 1841 they began their min- burgh, who pronounced his final vows istry.7 at St. James', stayed there a while, and Meantime, action was seen across the later rose to be the fourth bishop of city on Park Avenue and Saratoga Philadelphia. Father Neumann is be- Street. Rev. Joseph Salzbacher, canon yond question the most distinguished of the cathedral of Vienna, laid the cor- Redemptorist ever to have offered Mass nerstone of the new church to replace in Baltimore, where he did noble work St. John's in 1842, and three years later throughout the city. His sanctity of life 5Document in the Redemptorist archives, Esopus, New York. Quoted by John F. Byrne, The Redemptorist Centenaries, 93-94 (Philadelphia, 1932). 6 Relations of Father Bayer. Quoted by Byrne, 95. 7 St. James' Church, Centenary, 1834-1934, 9-11 (Baltimore, 1934). 8 St. Alphonsus' Church, Zur Erinnerung an die Centenar-Feier der St. Alphonsus Gemeinde (Baltimore, 1900). [38] became legendary among the Germans tions and at the same time suggested and at present his cause for beatification the training of a juvenile choir. is in process at Rome.8 Through the last testament of Mrs. The St. James' priests, house was, in Catherine Eberhart, a prominent mem- 1847, handed over to the school sisters ber of St. James' parish, three two-story of Notre Dame for a convent. There- houses on North Caroline Street near after, St. James' was administered from Madison Street were donated in 1864 St. Alphonsus' until 1860. "The Ger- to the Redemptorists for the care of the man Catholics on the west side of Jones' sick and infirm. The nuns of the third Falls, which was the line of demarca- order of St. Francis, from Philadel- tion, went to worship at St. Alphonsus' phia, took up the work. By 1867 the Church and those on the east or in 'Old institution had expanded so much the Town' remained at St. James'."10 The sisters were forced to purchase four administrator of St. James', Father acres of land at Caroline and Hoffman Thaddeus Anwander, a Bavarian, in ad- Streets, the price of which, $24,000, was dition to his parochial duties, extended furnished by the various congregations some German kindliness to the colored in charge of the Redemptorists. The Oblate Sisters of Providence by taking joint effort of the three Redemptorist them under his supervision. Due to his parishes—namely, St. James', St. Al- solicitude the scholars patronizing the phonsus', and another of which we have sisters in a short time grew from 18 to not yet spoken, St.

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