Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/546

 GERMANS

478

GERMANS

German priest on the Pacific coast was the Jesuit Father Eusebio Francisco Kino. His real name was Eusebius Franz Kuehn. He was a native of Trent, and entered the Society of Jesus in Bavaria, where for some time he was professor at lugolstadt. He came from Germany in 1680 or 1681, and to Lower Califor- nia in 1683. In the following year he was called to Sonora, where he laboured until his death, in 1710, meanwhile making missionary and exploring trips to the Rio Gila in Sonora. Other German Jesuits in Lower California from 1719 to 1767, were Joseph Baegert, the author of the " Nachrichten von der Kalifornischen Halbinsel" (Mannheim, 1772), Joh. BischofT, Franz Benno Ducure, Joseph Gasteiger, Eberhard Helen, Lambert Hostell, Wenzeslaus Link, Karl Neumayr, Georg Retz, Ignatz Tuersch, Franz X. Wagner. Arizona saw the indefatigable Father Euse- bius Kuehn, towards the latter part of the seventeenth century, as far up as the Gila River at its junction with the Colorado. In 1731, Philip V, at the sugges- tion of Benedict Crespo, Bishop of Durango, ordered three central missions to be established in Arizona, at the royal expense. To the joy of the bishop, three German Jesuit Fathers were sent. Father Ignatius Xavier Keller, Father John Baptist Grashoffer, and Father Philip Segesser. Of the last two, one soon died, and the other was prostrated by sickness, but Father Ignatius Keller became the leader of the new missions in that district, taking possession of Santa Maria Soaraca, 20 April, 1732. About the year 1750, we find Father Ignatius Pfefferkorn, a native of Mann- heim, Germany, at Guevavi; and at the same time, Father Sedelmayr, at the instance of the Spanish Government, was evangelizing the tribes on the Gila, erecting seven or eight churches in the villages of the Papagos, among whom Father Bernard Middendorf also laboured, and Father Keller was endeavouring to reach the Moquis, who were willing to receive mission- aries of any kind but Franciscans. Other prominent Jesuits from the Fatherland were Fathers Caspar Steiger, Heinrich Kiirtzel, and Michael Gerstner. By the summary act of the King of Spain, in 1763, every church in Arizona was closed and the Christian In- dians were deprived of their zealous German priests. In 1808, the Diocese of Baltimore, which had, up to this time, embraced the entire United States, was divided, and the four new sees of Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Bard.stown erected. There were, at that time, under the jurisdiction of the first Bishop of Philadelphia, Holy Trinity, attended by the Rev. William Elling and Father Adam Britt, the latter of whom issued a new edition of the German catechism ; St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum, erected in 1806, was the first institution of its kind established by Catholics in the United States. The Rev. Louis de Barth attended at Lancaster and Conewago. He was the son of Joseph de Barth, Count de Walbach, and his wife, Maria Louisa de Rohme, and was born at Miinster, 1 November, 1764. When the See of Philadelphia became vacant by the death of Bishop Egan, Father de Barth became administrator of the diocese. He died 13 October, 1838. The Rev. Paul Erntzen had begun, in 1793, his quarter-century pastorship at Goshenhoppen. Father Peter Helbron, O. Min. Cap., had reared a log chapel in Westmoreland County. After years of devoted service, he went to Philadelphia, but died at Carlisle on his homeward journey. The Rev. Demetrius A. Gallitzin was labouring in the dis- trict of which Loretto was the centre, and had come to America in 1792, with a learned and pious priest, the Rev. F. K. Brosius, who had offered his services to Dr. Carroll. He travelled under the name of Schmet, a contraction of his mother's name, but this in America soon became Smith, by which he was known for many years. He bore letters to Bishop ('arnill, and when he was introduced to the priests of Saiiit-Sulpice, was delighted with their life and work. His father had

marked out a brilliant career for him in the military or diplomatic service in Europe, but the peace and simplicity which reigned in America contrasted so forcibly with the seething maelstrom of European revolution that, penetrated with the vanity of worldly grandeur, young Gallitzin resolved to renounce all schemes of pride and ambition, and to embrace the clerical profession for the benefit of the American mission.

In 1808 the Diocese of New York was created, and its chief organizer was the learned and able Jesuit Father, Anthony Kohlmann, as vicar-general and administrator sedc vacante. He had come over from the old country in 1806, together with two other priests of his order. The German Catholics in New York had gradually increased, so that they organized a little congregation by themselves. Their first pas- tor seems to have been the Rev. John Raffeiner, of whom Archbishop Hughes said: "Bishops, priests, and people have reason to remember Father Raffeiner for many years to come". He visited his countrymen far and near, always ready to hasten to any pomt to give them the consolations of religion. For a time the Germans in New York assembled under his care in a disused Baptist place of worship at the corner of Delancey and Pitt Streets, and afterwards, when the lease expired, in St. Mary's church; but on 20 April, 1833, tlie corner-stone of a church to he dedicated to St. Nicholas, on Second Street, was laid. By the sacrifices and exertions of Father Raffeiner the church was completed and dedicated on Easter Sunday, 1836. Father Raffeiner directed the church for several years and became vicar-general for the Germans in the diocese. By the year 1836, the German Catholic element in the Boston diocese required Bishop Fen- wick's care, the largest body of them being in and near Roxbury. Having no priest in his diocese who could speak Cierman fluently. Bishop P^nwick applied to his fellow-bishop in New York, and at the close of May, 1835, the Very Rev. John Raffeiner, apostle of his countrymen in the East, arrived. On the last day of May, that zealous priest gathered three hun- dred in the chapel of St. Aloysius and addressed them with so much power and unction, that he spent the whole evening in the confessional. Quickened by his zeal, they resolved to collect means to support a priest, and in August, 1836, they obtained the Rev. Father Hoffmann as their pastor, with Father Frey- gang as assistant; but, led by designing men, they would not co-operate with those sent to minister to them. Fathers Hoffmann and Freygang were both forced to retire, and an ex-Benedictine, named Smol- nikar, became their choice. In a short time, however, the bishop discovered in this priest unmistakable signs of insanity and, unable to obtain another clergy- man, became himself the chaplain of the German congregation. In 1841, stimulated by their bishop, they purchased a lot on Suffolk Street, and prepared to erect a church, laying the corner-stone on 28 June; he had already secured a zealous priest. Rev. F. Roloff, for this congregation. The German Catholic body in New York City, was now increasing so rapidly that soon another church was needed, and in June the corner-stone of St. John Baptist's was laid by the Very Rev. Dr. Power, to be dedicated on 13 September, by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Hughes.

About 1820 Ohio was already the home of many Catholic families of German speech. It was for this reason that Bishop Flaget, of Bardstown and Louis- ville, urged that a see should be erected at Cincinnati, and for its first, bishop reeommendetl the Rev. Deme- trius A. Gallitzin, educated in Germany, and familiar with the language and ideas of the people; but the good priest, learning of the project, peremptorily re- fused. In 1829, two zealous German priests began to make a list of their Catholic countr\'men in the State of Ohio. They found them everywhere — at Cincin-