GATHERED FRAGMENTS A Publication of The Catholic Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania • Vol. XXVII, Fall 2017 1 Table of Contents • Vol. XXVII • Fall 2017 Page Submission Guidelines, Membership Information, and Board of Directors ............................................................ 3 Submission Guidelines The Catholic Historical Society The Catholic Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania solicits and Western Pennsylvania’s First Martyr: Father Gerard A. Donovan, M.M. ................................................................... 4 of Western Pennsylvania welcomes items for Gathered Fragments addressing the culture and history of Catholicism in Western Pennsylvania. Sister Mary Regina Donovan, S.S.J. (Nora Donovan) ..................................................................................................23 Gathered Fragments publishes articles and primary sources relating to the parochial, religious, diocesan, and laical history of the Catholic Church Antebellum Culture Warriors: Bishop Michael O’Connor, The Pittsburgh Catholic, in Western Pennsylvania. We also solicit book and exhibit reviews, news, Board of Directors and Jane Grey Swisshelm ............................................................................................................................................24 and other items relating to Catholic history in Western Pennsylvania. Genealogical items are accepted, providing they relate to the broader Mike Aquilina History of the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of Saints Cyril and Methodius ..........................................................30 scope of the Society’s mission. Articles previously published elsewhere will be considered with appropriate permission from the original John C. Bates Saint Nicholas Chapel .......................................................................................................................................................42 publication. Submissions should pertain in some way to the broader theme of Catholicism in Western Pennsylvania. Rev. Michael P. Conway History of Immaculate Heart of Mary Collegiate Seminary ......................................................................................43 Research articles will be considered. Notation of sources must accompany each article. Submitters are urged to consult the Chicago Manual of Style or the most current edition of Kate Blanche G. McGuire Fr. Aleksandr Schrenk Ordained a Priest .......................................................................................................................56 Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, for guidelines on proper formatting. Samuel Hazo: Everybody’s Autobiographer .................................................................................................................57 Rev. Peter Murphy Submissions should be sent to: [email protected]. To submit by mail, please send to: Catholic Historical Society of Former Churches of the Diocese of Greensburg .......................................................................................................60 Western Pennsylvania, Diocese of Pittsburgh, 2900 Noblestown Road, Kathleen M. Washy Pittsburgh, PA 15205-4227. Rev. Clifford M. Lewis, S.J. – Journalist, Husband, Priest, College Co-Founder, and Historian. ..........................65 The opinions expressed in Gathered Fragments represent the views Dennis Wodzinski only of the individual contributors. They do not necessarily reflect “I’m Their Bishop and I Need to Respond to Their Pain”. .......................................................................................79 the views of the officers, the members of the board of directors, or The Catholic Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Advertising in History of the Location of St. Joseph’s House of Hospitality ..................................................................................84 Gathered Fragments does not necessarily imply endorsement. Editors Setting the Stage for Sr. Mary Mark’s Memoir Beacon in the Dark ...............................................................................87 Membership Information John C. Bates Beacon in the Dark ............................................................................................................................................................90 Gathered Fragments is published once a year by The Catholic Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, Diocese of Pittsburgh, 2900 Kathleen M. Washy Noblestown Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15205-4227. Rates for subscriptions Donor List ........................................................................................................................................................................118 are currently: $150 for member of Msgr. Andrew A. Lambing Circle, $125 for member of Msgr. Francis A. Glenn Circle, $100 for Celebrating Lay Apostolate History in the Diocese of Pittsburgh sustaining members, $45 for institutional members, $35 for individual members, and $20 for women religious members. • Revitalizing Parishes through Effective Ministries .........................................................................................119 The Society also welcomes donations to complete research, as well as to support publishing and preservation projects in local • Lay Apostolates Serve the Church of Pittsburgh with a Living Faith ........................................................120 Church history. Cover Photo Our Authors .....................................................................................................................................................................127 The Men of Maryknoll window, The Chapel of Our Lady, Canterbury School, New Milford, Connecticut. Father Gerard Donovan is represented News from The Catholic Historical Society ................................................................................................................129 in the lower right panel. Source: Canterbury School. Book Reviews ...................................................................................................................................................................132 © 2017 by The Catholic Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania 2 3 Western Pennsylvania’s First Martyr: Father Gerard A. Donovan, M.M. Go forth, farewell for life, O dearest brothers; Proclaim afar the sweetest name of God. We meet again one day in heaven’s land of blessings. Farewell, brothers, farewell.” – Charles-François Gounod’s missionary hymn, refrain sung at the annual Maryknoll Departure Ceremony1 John C. Bates Western Pennsylvania was true missionary territory well into the 30 miles east of the city of Mukden (today, Shenyang),6 would 19th century. A small number of colonial Catholics who migrated serve as headquarters for this new mission. to the area after the British secured control from the French was later joined by German and Irish immigrants seeking freedom, Maryknoll would become, to many, the best-known Catholic land, and employment. Used to privation in the “old country,” missionary order in the United States. Its monthly, The Field Afar the new arrivals survived and thrived. Their children, typically (later renamed Maryknoll magazine), enjoyed a broad national raised in modest circumstances, were no less able to cope with readership. That magazine, missionary appeals at parishes, teaching the challenges occasioned by an industrializing society. Imbued sisters’ encouragement of mission-mindedness among students in with the faith of their parents, this next generation of young parochial schools, and newspaper and radio coverage of mission- men and women responded to appeals by the Catholic Church ary activities abroad served to encourage vocations among young to become missionaries and evangelize the Americans who sought to become mission- 7 parts of the world where the Gospel had aries. Numbered among those in Western not yet been preached. Pennsylvania who responded was the Donovan family in McKeesport, Pennsyl- Maryknoll vania. Three brothers – Joseph,8 Thomas,9 The first American missionary order was and Gerard – entered the order and were the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of ordained priests. Gerard, the youngest of America – popularly known as Maryknoll. the three, was to become the first Maryknoll Established in 1911 by Fathers Thomas priest to die a martyr’s death in China. F. Price and James A. Walsh, the fledgling society purchased property in Ossining,2 Gerard A. Donovan Westchester County, New York in 1912. Gerard was born on October 14, 1904, in Dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, McKeesport, about ten miles southeast of the land was named “Mary’s knoll.” the city of Pittsburgh. His father, Michael Map of China’s Provinces Donovan, was an immigrant from County 10 Fathers Walsh and Price both agreed that Source: Chinahighlights.com Clare, Ireland. His mother, Mary McCahill, China was the land where their mission- had been born in Scotland of Irish immi- aries “should be most needed.”3 By that grants from County Donegal.11 The two time, however, most of China had already been divided into young adults married at St. Peter Church in McKeesport in 1880. prefectures and vicariates apostolic entrusted to other missionary Gerard – known to his pals simply as “Jerry” – was the youngest organizations. Under Propaganda Fide’s principle of jus commissionis of their thirteen children; the span between the oldest and young- (right of entrustment), an express invitation