Finotti, Joseph M
Finotti, Joseph M.
Born at Ferrara, Italy, 21 September, 1817; died at Central City, Colorado, 10 January, 1879.
In 1833 the young Finotti was received into the Society of Jesus in Rome, and for several years taught and studied in the colleges of the order in Italy. He was one of the recruits whom Fr. Ryder, in 1845, brought from Europe to labour in the Maryland Province. After his ordination at Georgetown, D.C., Fr. Finotti was appointed pastor of St. Mary’s Church, Alexandria, Virginia, and given charge of outlying missions in Maryland and Virginia. In 1852 he left the Society of Jesus and went to Boston. For many years he held the position of literary editor of “The Pilot”, while acting as pastor of Brookline and later of Arlington, Massachusetts.
The last few years of his life he spent in the West, becoming, in 1877, pastor of Central City, Colorado, and retaining charge of that parish up to the time of his death.
Fr. Finotti was a great book lover, giving much time to literary pursuits and displaying special interest in the Catholic literary history of America. Among his literary productions are, “Month of Mary”, 1853, which reached a sale of 50,000 copies; “Life of Blessed Paul of the Cross”, 1860; “Diary of a Soldier”, 1861; “The French Zouave”, 1863; “Herman the Pianist”, 1863; “Works of the Rev. Arthur O’Leary”; “Life of Blessed Peter Claver”, etc. Most of these publications were translated or edited by him.
His best-known work, never completed, is his “Bibliographica Catholica Americana” which took years of study and care. It was intended to be a catalogue of all the Catholic books published in the United States, with notices of their authors, and epitomes of their contents. The first part, which brings the list down to 1820 inclusive, was published in 1872; the second volume, which was to include the works of Catholic writers from 1821 to 1875, was never finished, though much of the material for it had been industriously gathered from all available sources.
His last literary effort, which he did not live to see published, entitled “The Mystery of Wizard Clip” (Baltimore, 1879), is a story of preternatural occurrences at Smithfield, West Virginia, which is partly told in the life of Father Gilitzin.
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Illustrated Catholic Family Almanac, 1880; biographical Sketch in MS., Georgetown College archives; McGee’s Weekly, Feb. 15, 1879; Ave Maria, Feb., 1879; Sommervogel, II, 747.
EDWARD P. SPILLANE
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VICopyright © 1909 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, September 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Finotti, Joseph M
a Roman Catholic divine, was born in Ferrara, Italy, in 1817, and educated at the Jesuit College, Rome. Being induced, in 1845, by professor Ryder, of Georgetown College, to come to America, Finotti was ordained at Georgetown; in 1850 was pastor of St. Mary’s Church, Alexandria, Virginia; in 1852 left the Society of Jesus, and went to Boston, Massachusetts, where he was for three years editor of the Boston Pilot, was also pastor of Brookline, Brighton, and other missions, and afterwards at Arlington, near Boston. He resided for a time at St. Mary’s Seminary, near Cincinnati, Ohio, from there he went to Omaha, Nebraska, and finally to Central City, Colorado, in 1877, of which parish he had charge ulnntil his death, January 10, 1879. Finotti was a lover of books, most of his time being spent in his library, and he was constantly writing. He published, A French Grammar (in Italian): A Month of Mary (1853): Life of Blessed Paul of the Cross (1860): Italy in the Fifteenth Century: Diary of a Soldier (1861): The French Zouave (1863): Herman, the Pianist (ibid.): The Spirit of St. Francis of Stales (1866): Works of Rev. Arthur O’Leary: Life of Blessed Peter Cleaver, etc. Most of these works are translations, or were edited by him. His greatest work, never completed, was his Bibliographia Catholica Americana, being a list of all the Roman Catholic books published in the United States, with notices of their authors and epitome of their contents. The first part, bringing the list down to 1825, was published in 1872. One of the projects of Finotti was the introduction into schools of a wellarranged series of Christian classics. See (N.Y.) Catholic Annual, 1880, page 44.