MASSAIA
29
MASSAIA
the Otises, the Lees, the Perkinses, Everetts, and
Lorings — all non-Catholics — whose voices and pens
were enlisted heartily in the cause of justice, tolera-
tion, and unity.
In 1843, Rhode Island and Connecticut were set off from the original Diocese of Boston. Maine and New Hampshire, also under the jurisdiction of Boston, were made a new diocese ten years later, with the episcopal see at Portland. This was the period of the great Irish immigration, and Boston received a large quota. This new influx was, as in the previous century, looked upon as an "intrusion" and the usual result followed. New England had now become what Lowell was pleased to call ' ' New Ireland ". This religious and racial trans- formation, made the necessity for churches, academies, schools, asylums, priests, and teachers an imperative one. The work of expansion, both material and spiritual, went forward apace. The great influx of Canadian Catholics added much to the Catholic population, which had now reached more than a million souls — over sixty-nine per cent of the total re- ligious population of the state. The era was not with- out its reUgious strife, this time within public and charitable institutions, state and municipal. This chapter reads like those efforts of proselytizing in the colonial days when names of Catholic children were changed, paternity denied, maternity falsified — all in the hope of destroying the true religious inheritance of the state's wards. The influence of Catholics in the governing of institutions, libraries, and schools has since then increased somewhat. The spiritual necessi- ties of the vast Catholic communities are provided for abundantl}'; orphans are well housed; unfortu- nates securely protected ; the poor greatly succoured ; and the sick have the sacraments at their very door. Schools, academies, colleges, and convents, wherein Catholic education is given, are now within the reach of all. The whole period of Archbishop Williams's administration (1866-1907) has been appropriately called "the brick and mortar age of the Catholic Church in New England". (See Boston, Archdiocese
OF.)
Upon the death of Archbishop Williams, in the sum- mer of 1907, his coadjutor, the Most Reverend William H. O'Connell, D.D. (the present archbishop), was promoted to the metropolitan see. This archbishop invited the National Convention of the Federation of Catholic Socii'ties to meet in Boston with resulting interest, activity, and strength to that society, in which, indeed, he has shown a special interest. To develop the solidarity of priests and people, of races and nations, of the cultured and the unlettered — a unity of all the interests of the Church, the arch- bishop needed a free press : he purchased ' ' The Pilot", secured able and fearless writers and placed it at a nominal cost within the reach of all. The dangers to the immigrant in a new and fascinating environment are all anticipated, and safeguards are being strength- ened daily. At the same time, the inherited mis- understandings of Puritan Massachusetts, and the evil machinations of those who would use religion and charity for selfish motives or aggrandizement are still active. The Catholic mind is aroused, however, and the battle for truth is being waged; Catholic Massachu- setts moves forward, all under one banner — French Canadian, Italian, Pole, German, Portuguese, Greek, Scandinavian, and Irish — each vying with the other for an opportunity to prove his loyalty to the Church, to its priests, and to their spiritual leader. In every diocese and in each county well-organized branches of the Federation exist, temperance and church societies flourish, educational and charitable associations are alive and active. The Church's ablest laymen are enlisted, and all are helping mightily to accomplish the avowed intention of the Archbishop of Boston, to make Massachusetts the leading Catholic state in the country. (See also Cheverus, Jean
Louis de; Boston, Archdiocese of; Fall Riveh,
Diocese of; Springfield, Diocese of.)
Adstin, History of Massachusetts {Boston, 1S76) ; Bancroft History of the United States, I (London, ISS3-S4); Barry, His- tory of New England, I (Boston, 1855); Boston Town Records (Boston, 1772); Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation- Davis, The New England Slates, IH (Boston. 1897); Drake The Making of New England, 16S4-1643 (New York. 1886) ; DwioHT, Travels in New England, I (New Haven, 1831), 22; Emerson, Education in Massachusetts, Massachusetts Historical Collection (Boston, 1869); HAI.E, Review of the Proceedings of the Nunnery Committee (Boston, 1855); Harrington, History of Harvard Medical School, III (New York, 1905); Irish Historical Proceedings. II (Boston, 1899); Leahy. History of the Catholic Church in New England States, I (Boston, 1899); Massachusetts Historical Society, Collection, Ist ser., V (Boston, 1788); Pro' ceedings, 2d ser., Ill (Boston. 1810); McGee, The Irish Settlers in America (Boston. 1851); Parker, The First Charter and the Early Religious Legislation of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Historical Collection (1869); Walsh. The Early Irish Catholic Schools of Lowell, Mass., 1835-1856 (IJoston, 1901); Idem. Am. Cath. Q. Rev. (January, 1904).
Thomas F. Harrington.
Massaia, Guglielmo, Cardinal, b. 9 June, 1809, at Piova in Piedmont, Italy; d. at Cremona, 6 August, 1889. His baptismal name was Lorenzo; that of Guglielmo was given him when he became a religious. He was first educated at the Collegio Reale at Asti un- der the care of his elder brother Guglielmo, a canon and precentor of the cathedral of that city. On the death of his brother he passed as a student to the dio- cesan seminary; but at the age of sixteen entered the Capuchin Franciscan Order, receiving the habit on 25 September, 1825. Immediately after his ordination to the priesthood, he was appointed lector of theology ; but even whilst teaching he acquired some fame as a preacher and was chosen confessor to Prince Victor Emmanuel, afterwards King of Italy, and Ferdinand, Duke of Genoa. The royal family of Piedmont would have nominated him on several occasions to an episco- pal see, but he strenuously opposed their project, being desirous of joining the foreign missions of his ordfer. He obtained his wish in 1846. That year the Con- gregation of Propaganda, at the instance of the travel- ler Antoine d'Abbadie, determined to estal)lish a Vi- cariate-Apostolic for the Gallas in Ab\'ssinia. The mission was confided to the (';ipuchins, and Massaia was appointed first vicar-apostolic, and was consecrated in Rome on 24 May of that year. On his arrival in Abyssinia he found the country in a state of religious agitation. The heretical Coptic bishop, Cyril, was dead and there was a movement amongst the Copts towards union with Rome. Massaia, who had re- ceived plenary faculties from the pope, ordained a number of native priests for the Coptic Rite; he also obtained the appointment by the Holy See of a vicar- apostolic for the Copts, and himself consecrated the missionary Giustino de Jacobis to this office. But this act aroused the enmity of the Coptic Patriarch of Egypt, who sent a bishop of his own, Abba Salama, to Abyssinia. As a result of the iM.suing polit ical agita- tion, Massaia was banished from the ccmnt ry :uul had to flee underan assumed name. In l.S.'jOhe visited Europe to gain a fresh band of missionaries and means to develop his work: he had interviews with the French Minister of Foreign Affairs in Paris, and with Lord Palmcrston in London. On his return to the Gallas li(> founded a large number of missions; he also established a school at Marseilles for the education of Galla boys whom he had freed from slavery; besides this he composed a grammar of the Galla language which was published at Marseilles in 1S67. During his thirty-five years as a missionary he was exiled .seven times, but he always returned to his labours with renewed vigour. How- ever, in 1880 he was compelled by ill-licahli to resign his mission. In recognition of his merit, Leo XIII raised him to the titular Archbishopric of .Stauropoli.s and on 10 November, 1884, to th(^ dignity of cardinal of the title of S. Vitalis. At the command of the pope he wrote an account of his missionary labours, under the title, "I miei trentacinque anni di missione nell'
