Hughes, John (3)
Hughes, John
Fourth Bishop and first Archbishop of New York, born Annaloghan, County Tyrone, Ireland , 1797 ; died New York, New York, 1864 . Arriving with his father in America in 1817 , he lived for a time at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. In 1819 he entered Mount Saint Mary’s College at Emmitsburg, working his way as gardener and then as teacher. Ordained in Saint Joseph’s Church, Philadelphia, in 1826 , he served later as pastor there and at Saint Augustine’s, and built the church of Saint John in 1832 . Named coadjutor to Bishop Dubois of New York in 1837 , he was consecrated in old Saint Patrick’s Cathedral on Mott Street. He put an end to the vicious trustee system in 1839 . From 1840-1842 he engaged in fruitless efforts to have the public school moneys fairly apportioned, succeeding, however, in promoting the parochial school movement. He succeeded Bishop Dubois in 1842 . He established Saint Joseph’s Seminary at Rose Hill, Fordham, in 1840 , and Saint John’s College in 1841 , the Jesuits being put in charge in 1846. By upholding the rights of Catholic citizens to defend their property he prevented an outbreak in New York of the fanatical Native American riots in 1844 . He was invited in 1847 to address Congress. In 1851 he was named Archbishop of New York, receiving the pallium in Rome from the hands of Pius IX. In 1858 the cornerstone of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral was laid. During the Civil War he went, in 1861 , at the request of the government, to France , where he helped to secure French loyalty to the federal government. Saint Joseph’s Seminary was opened at Troy in 1864 . Before his death four bishoprics had been created within the territory of his first diocese : Albany , Buffalo , Brooklyn , and Newark. His body, buried first in old Saint Patrick’s, was removed to the present cathedral in 1883 .
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Hughes, John
Fourth bishop and first Archbishop of New York, born at Annaloghan, Co. Tyrone, Ireland, 24 June, 1797 of Patrick Hughes and Margaret McKenna: died in New York, 3 January, 1864. His father, a farmer of limited means, emigrated to the United States in 1816, and settled in Chambersberg, Pa. Johns’s early education was received at Aligher, and later at Auchnacloy, near his native village. Though he felt called to the priesthood, circumstances did not permit him to continue his studies: being disinclined to farm life, he was placed with a friend of his father to study horticulture. He followed his father to America in 1817, landed at Baltimore, and soon after went to Chambersburg where he aided his family for a year or more. His ardent desire to become a priest brought him in 1819 to Mount St. Mary’s College, Emmitsburg. Md., which he entered as an employee, being received a year later as a student. Ordained to the priesthood 15 October, 1826, by Bishop Conwell, in St. Joseph’s Church, Philadelphia, he laboured first at St. Augustine’s, Philadelphia, later at Bedford, Pa., finally returning to Philadelphia to become pastor of St. Joseph’s, and afterwards of St. Mary’s whose trustees were in open revolt against the bishop, and were subdued by Father Hughes only when he built St. Joseph’s church, 1832, then considered one of the finest in the country. Previous to this, in 1829, he founded St. John’s Orphan Asylum. About this period he was engaged in a religious controversy with Rev. John A. Brekenridge, a distinguished Presbyterian clergyman, with the result that Father Hughes’s remarkable ability attracted widespread attention and admiration. His name was mentioned for the vacant see of Cincinnati and for the Coadjutorship of Philadelphia. On 7 Jan, 1838, however, Father Hughes was consecrated Bishop of Basileopolis and Coadjutor of New York, by Bishop Dubois, in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Mott Street, New York. In 1839 he became administrator-Apostolic of New York, and on the death of Bishop Dubois succeeded to the vacant see, 20 Dec. 1842. He was raised to the dignity of first Archbishop of New York, 19 July, 1850, receiving the pallium personally from Pius IX at Rome, 3 April 1851.
The abolition of trusteeism In New York marked the beginning of his episcopate. He confronted a critical diocesan condition arising from differences between Bishop Dubois and the lay trustees whose control of the church revenues was working injury to religion, and had encumbered the 10 churches then in the city with a debt of $300,000, a crushing burden in those days. Bishop Hughes’s in Philadelphia with trusteeism served him well in taking up the defense of Bishop Dubois. He appealed directly to the people, before whom he forcefully defended the Divine authority to govern granted by Christ to the hierarchy, and clearly exposed the viciousness of lay domination in administration of church matters. The people readily passed a resolution condemning the cathedral trustees who gave way to a new board well disposed to obey ecclesiastical authority. The bishop convoked in 1841 the first Diocesan Synod of New York, which enacted timely legislation affecting spiritual matters, and advised for tenure and administration of church property wise regulations which placed the rector of the church in control of temporals as well as spirituals. His triumph over the trustee system would have been complete and final at the very outset had the trustees of St. Louis’s church, Buffalo, been as prompt to submit as all others. Their attitude brought the archbishop, as late as 1855, into a controversy with Erasmus Brooks, editor and state senator, who assailed in the Legislature the archbishop’s plan of holding church property. Unfavorable legislation followed, but was soon repealed, and prepared the way for the present satisfactory religious corporation law of the State of New York
Returning from Europe, whither he had gone in 1839 to seek aid for his diocese, Bishop Hughes found his flock involved in a movement to modify the existing common school system, which, professing to be non-sectarian, was undermining, in fact, the religious beliefs of Catholic children. The bishop immediately placed himself at the head of the movement, and deemed it incumbent on him to oppose the Public School Society, a private corporation controlling the management of schools and the distribution of the school fund provided by the municipality. He based his objection to this society on the ground that it violated a fundamental American principle, namely freedom of conscience. Catholics could not accept any system of education which ignored, undermined, or opposed the religious faith their conscience dictated to be true. After two years’ unceasing contest, he finally brought about the overthrow of the Public School Society. He had hoped, and Governor Seward was kindly disposed, that the Legislature might be so truly American as to sanction and support Catholic schools. Religious animosity proved too bitter. The bishop’s hopes were not realized. The establishment of the present public school system followed, which likewise, failing to satisfy Catholic conscience, led the bishop to lay the foundation, on a firm basis, of the existing Catholic school system in New York. An anti-Catholic outbreak of the “Native American” political party occurred in 1844, in Philadelphia, where churches and convents were destroyed. A meeting of this party was announced to take place in New York City. Apprehensive that the result would be riot and bloodshed, the bishop called personally on the mayor of the city to prevent the meeting. Warning him of the consequences if any anti-Catholic outrage were attempted. He at the same time solemnly cautioned his flock against violence, but took measures to resist any attack against church property. His fearless determined attitude prevented the holding of the meeting and averted disturbance of the peace. Ten years later the “Know-nothing” faction became active. He again advised his people to keep aloof from the centres of trouble. He was deeply convinced that all such movements, being as anti-American as they were anti-Catholic, could not possible thrive in the United States.
Few public men of his day possessed a more statesmanlike grasp of the genius of the American Republic. He had unbounded confidence in its institutions, when their very existence was precarious. He looked upon America as a land of promise opened by a beneficent Providence to the oppressed of the nations. No one would question his own abiding love of his native soil; but he would not permit this love to make him lament as an exile of Erin when he might rejoice as an American citizen. Thus he taught his people. So far-seeing was he in this respect that he looked with disfavor upon national churches, lest they might perpetrate racial differences and foreign customs. All must be formed into a common people; and no influence could do this better for the American people, he contended, than the Catholic Church sent by Christ to teach all nations. Archbishop Hughes will ever rank among America’s foremost citizens. His towering character, genius for government, and intense patriotism won for him the respect and often the admiration of his opponents, the esteem and even the lifelong friendship of distinguished statesmen. President Polk, through Secretary Buchanan, in 1846, proffered him a diplomatic mission to Mexico, which he was unable to accept. On invitation of John Quincy Adams, Stephen A. Douglas, and John C. Calhoun, he lectured before Congress in the Capitol, Washington, his topic being “Christianity, the Only Source of Moral Social and Political Regeneration”. At the outbreak of the Civil War, although not an abolitionist, he boldly sustained the Union cause, and was in frequent communication with William H. Seward, Secretary of State, to whom he offered useful suggestions on the conduct of the war. President Lincoln, in an autograph letter, expressed his appreciation of the counsel given. Secretary Seward, desiring to hold France in a friendly attitude towards the Federal Government, entrusted the archbishop with an important mission to the court of Napoleon III, who received him most graciously, and was dissuaded by him from recognizing the Confederacy. On this visit to Europe, wherever he went, he left nothing undone to create sympathy for the Union side. During the Draft Riots of 1863 in New York City, Governor Seymour invoked the aid of the archbishop to suppress disorder, to which invitation, though he was fatally broken in health, he willingly responded, addressing a large assemblage from the balcony of his residence.
His loyalty to his adopted country was well balanced and finely adjusted to the duties and responsibilities of his sacred office. He exercised the strictest vigilance lest American liberty might engender liberal influence tending to minimize the doctrine and discipline of the Catholic Church. He unsparingly condemned those who, through fear of anti-Catholic feeling, were disposed to conciliate their opponents by seemingly harmless concessions. He was intolerant of the slightest modification or innovation in religion unless sanctioned by the Supreme Head of the Church. He believed that the adherence to Catholic faith should be bold, fearless, outspoken and uncompromising in the extreme, and especially so in the face of opposition. Pius IX, exiled in 1848, and again threatened in 1860, found the archbishop one of his staunchest defenders of the Holy See. Strong agencies of power and influence were conspiring against the temporal sovereignty of the pope, and this condition intimidated not a few Catholics into a policy of silent and ineffective sympathy; others somewhat less timid favored action, but of a conservative character. The archbishop approved of no such methods, and boldly proclaimed himself an uncompromising supporter of the Vicar of Christ and his lawful patrimony. By appeal, sermon, lecture, and pastoral letter he aroused his flock at home to unbounded enthusiasm, and stirred Christendom abroad in a masterly vindication of the temporal independence of the sovereign pontiff. He raised in 1860 the princely sum of $53,000, as an offering from his diocese to the Holy Father; and his pastoral letter, circulated throughout Europe and translated in Italian, afforded solace to the afflicted soul of Pius IX.
Conjointly with all this prominence and activity demanded by public and vital interests of Church and nation, the archbishop followed faithfully and zealously the exacting life of a hardworking missionary bishop in the upbuilding of a rapidly growing diocese. In 1842 there were some forty priests, fifty churches and 200,000 Catholics scattered over his jurisdiction, which embraced the State of New York and eastern part of New Jersey. Bishop McClosky, later the first bishop of Albany, was Coadjutor of New York from 1844 to 1847. Albany and Buffalo were erected into episcopal sees in 1847; Brooklyn and Newark in 1853. Besides these four separate dioceses made up within the original territory of the diocese of New York, the archbishop before his death in 1864 ruled 150 priests, 85 churches, 3 colleges, 50 schools and academies and over 400,000 people. He stated in 1858 that he had dedicated his 99th church. As metropolitan, created in 1850, he presided over New York, New Jersey and all New England, with suffragan sees at Albany, Buffalo, Brooklyn, Newark, Boston, Burlington, Hartford and Portland. The First Provincial Council of New York was convened in September, 1854, after which the archbishop journeyed to Rome and he was present at the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
During his administration institutions of charity and higher learning grew apace with churches and schools. The seminary was moved in 1840 from Largerville to Fordham, where a college was opened a year later. The Jesuits assumed charge of it in 1846, but in 1855 the archbishop withdrew the seminary from Fordham, and in 1862 secured property at Troy, New York, for the establishment of St. Joseph’s Provincial Seminary. He also proved to be one of the warmest supporters of the North American College, Rome, projected by Pius IX in 1855, and successfully opened in 1859. To meet diocesan needs he introduced into New York the Christian Brothers, the Religious of the Sacred Heart, the Sisters of Mercy, the Ursulines, the Sisters of Notre Dame, and the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. Finding the Sisters of Charity of Emmitsburg, Maryland, who were labouring in New York, restricted by their rule to a limited field and refrained from undertaking certain good works which the archbishop desired, he organized an independent diocesan community of Sisters of Charity, who to-day, are managing a variety of educational, charitable, protective and industrial institutions, and form one of the most flourishing and successful sisterhoods in the United States. Foreseeing the future greatness of his diocese and cathedral city, he planned the erection of a cathedral which would be commensurate with the importance of the city and See of New York, and would express in enduring stone the faith of his flock. He laid the cornerstone of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Fifth Avenue, 15 August 1858; this lofty and inspiring pile stands as a monument to his genius and prevision.
He lived and passed away amid stirring times; it was providential for church and country that he lived when he did. His natural gifts of mind and heart, independent of his education, were of a high order and made him pre-eminent in leadership; not only was he a great ruler of an important diocese in a hierarchy remarkable for distinguished bishops, but also a master-builder of the Church in the United States and one of the most helpful and sagacious of the makers of America. Church and nation are indebted forever to the prelate and citizen whose strong personality, and indomitable courage and invaluable service constituted him the man needed in his day to meet critical conditions. He was resolute, fearless, far-sighted and full of practical wisdom based on the sanest and soundest principles. To bring out the innate powers within him required but the opportunity presented by the Church struggling for a footing in a rather hostile community, and by the nation endeavoring to cope with harassing questions at home and impending trouble abroad. His failures were few; his achievements many and lasting. He was feared and loved; misunderstood and idolized; misrepresented even to his ecclesiastical superiors in Rome, whose confidence in him, however, remained unshaken. Severe of manner, kindly of heart, he was not aggressive until assailed.
He was a forceful, impressive and convincing speaker; an able, resourceful and talented controversialist, a clear, logical and direct writer. His writing were usually hastily done, as occasion required, but commanded general attention from friend and opponent His works are published in two volumes, which contain lectures, sermons, and pamphlets on historical and doctrinal subjects; open letters to men like Horace Greeley, General Cass, Mayor Harper, Senator Brooks and “Kirwin Unmasked”, a series of six letters to a Presbyterian minister, writing under the assumed name of Kirwin; these letters are considered models of good English and are among the best written by the archbishop. His mortal remains were interred in the old St. Patrick’s but were transferred 30 January, 1883 to their final resting place under the sanctuary of the cathedral in Fifth Avenue. His death elicited a general expression of sympathy and respect, and his memory was honored by tributes from President Lincoln and Secretary Seward, Governor Seymour and the Common Council of New York.
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HASSARD, Life of Most Rev. John Hughes (New York 1866):BRANN, Most Rev. John Hughes (New York 1892); KEHOE, Works of the Most Rev. John Hughes D.D. (2 vols. New York, 1864); CLARKE, Lives of the Deceased Bishops (New York 1888); FARLEY, History of St. Patrick’s Cathedral (New York 1908); SMITH, History of the Catholic Church in New York, I (New York 1905); SHEA, History of the Catholic Church in the United States (New York 1892); U.S. Catholic Hist. Soc., Hist Records and Studies, CORRIGAN, II, 227, MEEHAN, I, 171, THEBAUD, III, 282; BROWNSON, Works (Detroit, 1887), XIV, 485, XVII, 197, XX, 50; MAURY, Statesmen in America in 1846 (London 1847); Autobiography of Thurlow Weed (Boston, 1883); BAKER, Works of William H. Seward, III (New York 1853), 482.
P.J. HAYES Transcribed by C.A. Montgomery
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIICopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Hughes, John
an English divine, was born in 1682, educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, and afterwards became a fellow of the university. But little is known of his life. He died in 1710. Among his works we find Dissertationes in quibus Auctoritas Ecclesiastica, quatenus civili sit distincta, defenditur contra Erastianos (Cambridge, 1710, 8vo; and in English by Hilk. Bedford, London 1711, 8vo) St. Chrysostom’s Treat. on the Priesthood (Cambr. 1710, 8vo; 2nd edit., with notes, etc., 1712, 8vo). See Allibone, Dict. of Authors, 1, 911; Lowndes, Brit. Liter. p. 535 sq.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Hughes, John (2)
an American Roman Catholic prelate, was born in Ireland in 1798, and emigrated to this country in 1817, his father having preceded him about two years. At first he went to a florist to learn the art of gardening, but a few years later he entered the Theological Seminary of St. Mary’s at Emmittsburgh, Md., teaching also at the same time. In 1825 he was ordained priest in Philadelphia, and settled over a parish of that city. In 1837 he was appointed coadjutor of bishop Dubois, of New York. and immediately after his consecration in 1838, he assumed the virtual administration of the diocese, but he was not made bishop until 1842. In 1850 New York was raised to the dignity of an archiepiscopal see, and archbishop Hughes went to Rome to receive the pallium at the hands of the pope. He died January 3, 1864. Even before his elevation to the episcopacy he had gained among his coreligionists some distinction as a champion of his Church by a controversy, in 1830 and 1834, with Dr. John Breckinridge, on the question, Is the Protestant religion the religion of Christ? Some years later he had another celebrated controversy with Dr. Nicholas Murray, of Elizabeth, who, under the name of Kinran, published a series of able and interesting articles against the Roman Catholic Church. Both controversies increased his reputation among his coreligionists; but non-Catholics were not struck by his arguments in favor of Roman Catholicism, and he failed to attract anything like the attention, or produce anything like the impression, which writings of real ability, such as those of Mohler in Germany, and of Brownson and Hecker, are always sure to command. As archbishop, in the administration of the property of the Church, and the use, which he made of it for the spreading of his Church, he displayed a talent rarely found. An immense property gradually accumulated in his hands, which enabled him to increase largely the number of Roman Catholic churches, schools, and other denominational institutions.
Thus, in 1841, he opened the Roman Catholic St. John’s College, at Fordham, New York, to which he afterwards added the Theological Seminary of St. Joseph. The archbishop sustained a celebrated controversy on this subject with Erastus Brooks, editor of the New York Express, and at that time a state senator, who had stated in an address in the senate chamber that the archbishop owned property in New York to the amount of $5,000,000. A long discussion took place, and this time the ability with which the archbishop defended his statements and his position, was acknowledged alike by Protestants and Romanists. But he opened a breach between the Romanists and Protestants by his unauthorized demands in the School Question, to the effect that the Common Council of New York City should designate seven of the public schools as Catholic schools, and when this was denied both by the Common Council and the Legislature, bishop Hughes advised the Catholics to run, at the next political campaign, an independent ticket. He defended his cause with great ability, but failed to convince Protestants generally of the fairness of the demand to grant to the Roman Catholic community an exceptional prerogative, which was neither possessed nor claimed by any Protestant, body. He also opposed the reading of the Protestant version of the Bible in the common school, in which he was not quite so successful as in his other efforts in behalf of Romanism. Archbishop Hughes’s political influence in the United States was very great, and he was honored by all sects in a manner unknown in any other Protestant country. Thus, in 1847, he was invited by both houses of Congress to deliver a lecture in the hall of the House of Representatives in Washington, and after the outbreak of the Rebellion (1862) he was even entrusted with a semi-official mission to France. As a writer archbishop Hughes has done but little, except by the discussions above alluded to. These were all published in book form (Philadelphia 1836, 8vo). He also published a number of his sermons and addresses. Since his decease his works have been collected by Lawrence Kehoe (N.Y. 2 vols. 8vo; 2nd ed. 1865). N. Tablet, Jan. 1864; Methodist, Jan. 9,1864; An Amer. Cyclop. 1868, p. 429. (J. H..)
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Hughes, John (3)
a Wesleyan Methodist minister, nephew of John Thomas, vicar of Caerleon, Monmouthshire, was born at Brecon, County Brecon, May 18, 1776. He was educated at the grammar-school at Brecon, under the care of Reverend David Griffiths. Dr. Coke and other distinguished persons received their education at the same place and under the same master. In 1790 Hughes was converted under a sermon by John M’Kersey, and joined the Methodist Society. His parents designed him for the Established Church, but young Hughes could not conscientiously enter its ministry. In 1793 he became a resident with his uncle at Caerleon. In 1796 he was appointed by the Conference to the Cardiff Circuit. In 1800 he and Owen Davies were appointed the first missionaries in North Wales. In 1805 he was superintendent of the Welsh Mission in Liverpool. His remaining circuits were, Swansea, Bristoli Glasgow, Northwich and Warrington, Macclesfield, Newcastle-under-Lyne, etc.
In 1832 he became a supernumerary at Knutsford, Cheshire. He died May 15, 1843. Hughes deliberately declined a life of ease and honor, and, contrary to the wishes of his friends, chose the toils and privations of the Methodist ministry. From this course he never swerved. He was a most diligent worker, producing, amid the pressing duties of his itinerancy, works of great and lasting value. In 1803 he published a new edition of the Welsh Hymn-Book; he translated part of Dr. Coke’s Commentary on the New Testament (1809); while at Macclesfield, 1813, he wrote A Plea for Religious Liberty, a reply to Joseph Cook’s (“Civis”) The Danger of Schism, pamphlets which were the result of a controversy respecting the Sunday-schools originated by David Simpson, and which were now carried on by the Methodists; Hor Britannicae, or Studies in Early British History (Lond. 1818, 2 volumes 8vo), a work which received the encomiums of Dr. Thomas Burgess, bishop of Salisbury, then bishop of St. Davids, of Sharon Turner, in a letter to the author, of Price, of David M’Nicoll, and of the Eclectic Review. It embodied the results of many years’ antiquarian research and is a work of great value. Hughes also wrote, but did not publish, a work entitled Historical Triads; Consisting of Memorials of Remarkable Persons and Occurrences among the Cymry, translated from the Welsh, with notes and illustrations. The manuscript has been deposited in the British Museum. He received several prizes, premiums, and medals from the Cambrian Society for his literary productions. His last work was the Memoir and Remains of Fussell, which he finished in 1839. See Robert Jackson, Memoir in Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, March 1847, page 209 sq.; Minutes of the British Conference, 1843; Wesl. Meth. Magazine, September 1834, page 669; Smith, Hist. of Wesl. Methodism, 2:359, 361, 393 sq.