NEWARK
7,S0
NEWARK
olirsnt Mount Hope. Macopiii, I?:iskiiiK Ridgo, Tren-
ton, HindwiKul, and oiIut pl:i(cs. Tin' scttlcincnt at
Macopin (now Echo Lake) was made by sdiuc (icrnian
Catholics soniotimr before the Hevohition and their
descendants make up the parisli to-day.
Durint; the Revolution Washington's army brought many ("atliolics throush the State. In the camp at Morri.-^tcnvn I lie .•^jianish anent Don .luan de Miralles, died 'Js April, 17M). and his funeral was conducted by Father Serapliin Bandol, chaplain of the French Minis- ter, who came specially from I'liiladclphia to adminis- terthelast .<:icraments to the dy in;; .'Spaniard. Wash- ington and the other ollicers of the army attended the ceremony. When in the following May the remains were removed to Philadelphia, Congres.s attended the Requiem Ma.sa in St. .Mary's church. It was at Mor- ri.sfomi in 17S0, that the first oHicial recognition of St. Patrick's Day is to be found in \\ashington's order book, still preserved there at his headquarters. Mar- bois. writing from Philaileliihia. 2.') March, 1785, gives the number of Catholics in Xcw York and New Jersey as 17(M); more than half of these were probably in Xew Ji>rsey. There were many French refugees from the West Indies in Princeton, Elizabeth, and its vicin- ity, and Fathers Vianney, Tissorant, and Malou used to minister to them from .St. Peter's, New York, in the early years of the la.st century. Mines, furnaces, glass works, and other industries started in various sec- tions of the State, brought Catholic immigrants. The /Vugustinian Missionary, Father Philip Larisey, vis- ited Paterson about 1821, and the first parish in the State, St. Francis, Trenton, was established in 1814. Newark's first church, St. John's, was opened in 1828, the pastor being the Rev. Gregory B. Pardow of New York, and the first trustees Patrick Murphy, John Sherlock, John Kelly, Christopher Rourke, RIorris Fitzgerald, John Gillespie, and Patrick Mape. The first native of Newark to be ordained to the priesthood wa.s Daniel G. Durning, son of Charles Duming, in whose house Mass used to be said before the first church was built. In 1S20 Father Richard Bulger erected the first church in Paterson. In New Bruns- wick the first Ma.ss was said by Rev. Dr. Power of New York in 1S2."), and the first church was opened by Rev. Joseph A, Sclmeller, 19 December, 1831. In Jersey City, originally called Paulus Hook, Mass was first said in ls:i(), and the first church opened by the Rev- erend Hugh Mohan in is:i7. At Macopin the little band of German Catholics before mentioned had a church its early as 1829. Thus during the first half of the nineteenth century there was a slow but steady growth of the Faith all over the State, and as it was receiving a substantial share of the great inflow of Catholic immigrants, the Holy See deemed the time opportune to separate it from the Diocese of New Y'ork, and the See of Newark was erected. The Reverend James Roosevelt Bayley (q. v.), then secretary to Bishop Hughes of New Y'ork, was chosen the first Bishop of Newark, and consecrated .30 October, 18.53. There were then between fifty and si.xty thousand Catholics in his diocese, for the most part Irish and Germans.
In organizing the new diocese Bishop Bayley found he could count on only twenty-five priests. There were no diocesan in.stitutions except small orphanages, and the peoi)le were jicjor and of little- social influence. In the interest of Catholic education, one of his chief concerns, he founded the Madison Congregation of the Si.ster« of Charity (q. v.), and to .supply the lack of funds for the work of new churches, he obtained assistance from the .Association of the Propagation of the Faith of Lyons, France, and the Leopoldine Society of Vienna. Seton Hall College was opened by him in September, 1.866, and everywhere the dio- cese; responded to the energy of his zeal and practical effort. In ten years the churches increased to 67, the pnesta to 63, and a monastery of Benedictines and
another of Passionists was established. The Sisters
of Charity became a community of 87 members, con-
ducting 17 dilTerent eslalilishments. Other notable
additions were 2 convents of Benedictine nuns, 2 of
German Sisters of \oli<' Dame; 2 of Sisters of the
Poor of St. Francis; a llnurishiiig colli'ge, an acaileiiiy
for young hulies, a boarding school for boys, and par-
ish schools attached to most of the chiirchi'S, while the
old wooden chapels had been replaced by buildings of
brick and stone. ".Ml this has been done", the bishop
wrote, "in the midst of a population of emigrants,
comparatively poor, without incurring a great debt!"
In twelve years the A.ssociation of the Proiiagation of
the Faith gave the diocese $26,600. This progress,
too, wius made in spite of much local narrowness and
bigotry, the culmination of which on 5 November,
18.54, resulted in a riot during which an anti-Catholic
mob desecrated and sacked the little (i<-niKin church
of St. Mary in Newark .served by the Benedictine
Father Nicholas Balleis. In this disturbance a Cath-
olic was killed and several others wounded.
Bishop Bayley was promoted to the Archbishopric of Baltimore, 30 July, 1872, and his successor as second bishop of the see was the Right Reverend Michael Augustine Corrigan (q. v.) consecrated 4 May, 1873. He successfully overcame a number of complicated financial entanglements, and established a House of the Good Shepherd for girls 24 May, 1875, in Newark, a protectory for boys about the same time at Denville, and in June, 1880, in Newark a community of Dominican Nuns of the Perpetual Adoration, from Ouillins, France. On S and 9 May, 1878, an impor- tant synod was held, and in July, 1881, the Diocese of Trenton, which cut off a considerable portion of the Newark territory in the southern section, was estab- lished. On 1 October, 1880, Bishop Corrigan was made titular Archbishop of Petra and coadjutor of New York, and to succeed him as third Bishop of Newark, the Rev. Dr. Winand M. Wigger, then pastor at Madison, was chosen and consecrated 18 October 1881. Bishop Wigger was born of German parents in New Y'ork City, 9 December, 1841, and made his classical studies at St. Francis Xavier's College, New York. His theological course was followed at Seton Hall and at the college of Brignole-Sale, Genoa, Italy, where he was ordained priest 10 June, 1865. Follow- ing the example of his predecessors Bishop Wigger made the diocesan seminary one of the objects of his chief solicitude. In 1883 he removed the Catholic Protectory to Arlington and established the Sacred Heart Union to aid in its maintenance. The Fifth Diocesan Synod was held by him 17 November, 1886, at which strict regulations were enacted in regard to funerals and the attendance at parochial and public schools. On 11 June, 1899, he laid the cornerstone of a new cathedral church at Newark, and soon after was forced to go abroad in search of rest and health. On his return he took up his duties with zeal, but ilied of pneumonia, 5 January, 1901. The record of his administration shows a character entirely disinterested and unselfish united to a poverty truly apostolic.
The Vicar-General John J. O'Connor was the choice of the Holy See as fourth bishop, and was consecrated 25 July, 1901. Born at Newark, 11 June, 1855, he made his college course at Seton Hall. In 1873 he was sent to the American College at Rome where he spent four years. After another year at Louvain he was ordained priest 22 December, 1877, and on his return to Newark, was appointed professor at Seton Hall College where he became Director of the Seminary in which he remained for the following eighteen years. He was then named vicar-general and on .30 October, 1895, rector of St. Joseph's. Early in his administra- tion he adopted measures for the completion of the new cathedral of the Sacred Heart, begun by Bishop Wigger, making this the special object of the golden jubilee of the diocese. At this it was shown that in
