Our History

History of the Province

The Early Years - A New Foundation

(3) Community Life and Parochial Labors
In the spring of 1875 the new monastery was ready for occupation. On April 26th Divine Office was for the first time recited in common in the new choir.

The new foundation was again strengthened that year by the arrival of Father Felix Maria Lex of ZiII, Brother Elzear, and two lay candidates. Father Felix, with his two companions, had left the harbor of Bremen, Germany, on May 29th. In Southampton, where their ship cast anchor for a while, he met two members of the Rheno-Westphalian Capuchin Province, Fathers Anthony of Rorup and Francis of Ruedesheim. They were victims of the Kullurkampt and on their way to America, where they hoped to find an asylum and an appropriate field of labor for their brethren in Prussia, to whom the notorious May laws had made any kind of ministerial work and even community life in the fatherland impossible. The journey was made in common, of course, and the travelers arrived in Pittsburg on June 15th. Here the two Fathers of the Westphalian Province learned that the Carmelites who had charge of the German SS. Peter and Paul's Church in Cumberland, Md., wished to sell their monastery and withdraw from the parish. Negotiations were opened, and before long the Westphalian Province acquired the Carmelite monastery and garden for the sum of $21,000.00.

Father Felix and his companions remained at St. Augustine's, where the former was installed as master of novices. Among the numerous gifts he had brought from Europe were a great number of books, four vestments, relics and quite a large sum of alms.

On June 6th the monastic enclosure was established at St. Augustine's monastery, and henceforth the regular conventual order was observed as far as circumstances would permit. It may interest our readers to learn something of the mode of life followed by these Capuchin pioneers in those days and observed by the Friars even now, barring a few unessential modifications. They rose at 4 o'clock a.m., on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays even earlier, to recite Matins and Lauds. This was followed by the recitation of the Litany of All Saints, Meditation, Prime and Terce, and Conventual Mass. As the Fathers were few in number and were often required to keep late hours, they could not follow the ancient custom of the Order of saying Matins at midnight. The Conventual Mass was followed by Spiritual Reading. By this time it was about half past six o'clock. At that time the first refection (if a sip of coffee deserves that name) was taken, and then the members of the Community dispersed to their various occupations; the Fathers to their studies, to the classroom, to parochial work, or wherever obedience called them; the Brothers to workshop or garden, others again keeping busy within the cloister providing for the various needs of the household. Some of the Brothers, as we have already mentioned in the course of this history, are skillful artificers, designers and builders, and many a piece of cunning workmanship testified to the beholder that the Friars are not lazy men who have forsaken the world for their own selfish ends, but are far more busily engaged than many of their brethren in the world. A printing and book binding department often forms one of the interesting and useful occupations of the Capuchin friary.

The next religious duty was at half past eleven, when the Offices of Sext and None were said, followed by the Particular Examen. The principal refection of the day followed at twelve. Meat is barred from the Capuchin’s table during a great part of the year. The meal was followed by a brief visit to the Blessed Sacrament, and then by a short social colloquy (silence being the rule for the rest of the day). Vespers were said at half past one, after which the Friars returned to their respective work until a little before five, when the day's devotions were completed with Compline, Preces, and another Meditation. A frugal collation was served at six, then followed a brief recreation lasting until seven on fasting days, half an hour longer on other days. After night devotions and preparation for next morning's meditation everyone went to his cell to engage in reading or study until the hour of nine, the time set for retiring. As said before, this order, with a few modifications made imperative by local circumstances with regard to the hours of the Offices, is observed to this day in all our canonical houses. Thus night succeeds day and day succeeds night in a holy round of prayer and labor and self-denial and charity.

A great part of the Friars' time is taken up with parochial work in their parish churches and mission chapels. Of the former the Province of Pennsylvania has ten at present, of the latter thirty-two, which includes five conventual and institutional chaplaincies. Of the mission chapels, which are practically parish churches, most have divine services on every Sunday and feast day of the year, the pastors generally residing at the nearest monastery or hospice of the Order.

We are well aware of the claim made more insistently than judiciously, that Religious should leave parochial work to the diocesan clergy, and confine their labors to the special mission of their particular institute. None will concede this more readily than the Religious themselves. But it would be interesting to learn how religious orders could, in the earlier days, have subsisted in a country like ours without taking up parish work. The giving of missions would not have supported them in any number worth mentioning, though it might do so now that the period of formation is a thing of the past, in many dioceses at least. To live by alms collected from day-to-day, as is still done by the mendicants in some Catholic countries of Europe, would scarcely have appealed to the American mind. There seemed to be no other way for Religious to establish themselves on a safe basis but that of engaging in parochial work. Nor must it be forgotten that most of the "parishes" to which the Bishops of the country gladly welcomed them barely deserved that name. In many instances, if not in most, the missions entrusted to them were charges that offered unparalleled chances for the practice of evangelical poverty. That these missions, by dint of hard labor, many sacrifices, and frugal living, and frequently also through the generous help sent to the missionaries by European friends, gradually attained a certain degree of material prosperity as they began to increase and flourish spiritually, was quite natural. Nor was it to be expected, as human nature goes, that they who had plowed the ground and sown the seed would forthwith hie themselves to other fields yet unbroken, when harvest came. Yet even this was done and is still done in many instances, as the history of many a flourishing American parish founded and nurtured to maturity by a religious order, and our own brief sketch will amply show.

The pressure of parochial labors naturally forced the work proper to the Order to the background. This work consists chiefly in giving popular missions and retreats, and assisting the diocesan clergy in pulpit and confessional. The latter has always been done as far as the limited number of the Friars permitted, more especially during the Lenten seasons.

As regards mission work in the proper sense of the word (for missionaries in the broader sense Religious have always been), now that the missionary spirit is abroad in the country, and laborers that can be spared from the regular work which circumstances have forced upon them are more numerous, the Capuchins will no doubt fall in line before long, and return with gladness and fervor to their first love.

(4) Widening the Field

It was not long before the founders realized that a monastery situated in the very midst of a large manufacturing city and charged with the care of an extensive parish was little adapted for the successful training of the young aspirants of the Order. But where was a suitable location to be found? Again it was Bishop Domenec, the tried friend of the pioneers, who came to their rescue.

The growth of the Diocese of Pittsburg had been such that a further division was sometimes spoken of. Early in 1876 news arrived at Pittsburg of the division of the Diocese. The new See was erected at Allegheny. Bishop Domenec was appointed Bishop of Allegheny, and Rev. John Tuigg, pastor at Altoona, was named to the See of Pittsburg. The consecration of Bishop Tuigg took place on March 19, 1876, and on the same afternoon Bishop Domenec was installed as Bishop of Allegheny at the Pro-Cathedral of St. Peter, Archbishop Wood presiding at and conducting both ceremonies.

A few weeks after these events Father Hyacinth called on Bishop Domenec, laying before His Lordship the urgent needs of the Capuchin colony in his former episcopal city. The Bishop most readily offered him the choice between a parish in Indiana County and St. Mary's, Herman, Butler County. The healthy and secluded location of the latter, its proximity to Pittsburg, etc., seemed to make St. Mary's the better suited and more desirable of the two missions, and the Fathers made their choice accordingly. On May 27, 1876, Father Hyacinth proceeded to Herman, where he officiated for the first time on the following day, the sixth Sunday after Easter. On June 6th he was replaced by Father Matthew, who became the first Superior and Pastor of St. Mary's. Father Matthew was accompanied by Brothers Elzear and Didacus and two Tertiary students.

The memory of Bishop Domenec, who took so important a part in our first foundtions, deserves more than passing mention in this sketch.

Rt. Rev. Michael Domenec was born of wealthy parents in the city of Ruez, near Tarragona, in the north-east of Spain, in 1816. His early education was acquired in the schools of Madrid; but owing to the disturbances occasioned by the Carlist War, he was obliged at the age of fifteen to retire to France. He entered a college in the southern part of that country, and sometime later came to Paris, where he entered the seminary of the Lazarists, and soon after joined their congregation. He sailed from France in company with Very Rev. John Timon, Visitor-General of the congregation in the United States, and on the 15th of October, 1837, and arrived at the Barrens in Missouri on the 10th of the following February. After remaining here and pursuing his studies, especially the study of the English language, he was raised to the sacred dignity of the priesthood, June 29, 1839. In the following year he was sent with two other Fathers of the congregation to Cape Girardeau, where he built a college, and in 1842 he returned to the seminary at the Barrens. Not satisfied, however, with his duties as professor, he also labored on the mission in the wilds of Missouri until the year 1845, when he was sent in company with other Fathers of the congregation to take charge of the diocesan seminary at Philadelphia. He was at the same time pastor of the little congregation at Nicetown, and afterwards of that at Germantown. Here he erected a handsome church, and took up his residence; and it was from here that he was called to rule the Diocese of Pittsburg. (For our notes on the life of Bishop Domenec we are indebted to Father Lambing's History of the Catholic Church in the Diocese at Pittsburg and Allegheny.)

It was in the consistory of September 28, 1860, that Rev. Michael Domenec was promoted to the See made vacant by the resignation of its first bishop, the Rt. Rev. Michael O'Connor, who soon after entered the Society of Jesus. The Bishop-elect arrived in his episcopal city early in December, and fixed the 9th of the same month as the day of his consecration. The ceremony took place in the cathedral, and was attended with unusual pomp. Most Rev. F. P. Kenrick, Archbishop of Baltimore, was consecrating prelate. The sermon was preached by Rt. Rev. J. TImon of Buffalo.

Bishop Domenec entered upon his new duties with remarkable zeal and activity, the fruits of which were soon evident all over the diocese in new churches, schools, and asylums for the sick and the poor. He brought the Little Sisters of the Poor and the Sisters of the Good Shepherd to Pittsburg. At the invitation of the Pope he was present in Rome at the canonization of the Japanese martyrs. During the Rebellion he was entrusted by the United States government with a mission to Spain, which, it was feared, was on the point of recognizing the Southern Confederacy. He discharged the delicate duties of his mission with great success. One of his visits to Rome was in order to be present at the great Vatican Council in 1869. His next visit to the Eternal City was made in 1875, its object being the division of the diocese of Pittsburg. On January 11, 1876, Bishop Domenec was transferred to the new see. His successor in Pittsburg, Very Rev. John Tuigg, was appointed on January 16, 1876.

The division of the diocese, however, did not give general satisfaction. In April, 1877, Bishop Domenec went to Rome, never to return to America. Having devoted almost seventeen years of incessant labor to the welfare of religion in the most exalted, as it is the most onerous, position that man can occupy in this world, and having everywhere left monuments of his zeal and devotedness to the flock over which he had been called by the voice of Christ's Vicar to preside, he resigned the See of Allegheny on the 29th of July, 1877, and retired soon after to his native land.

Concerning the closing scenes in the life of Bishop Domenec the Hon. Frederick Schenk, American Consul at Barcelona, in Spain, wrote as follows: "The late Mr. Domenec came to Barcelona in the early part of the fall, and remained for several months, preaching in the different Catholic churches twice every week and many times oftener; and being considered by the public in general a very line speaker, and beloved by all who knew him personally, the churches were on all occasions overcrowded. He left Barcelona for his native, Ruez, about five miles from Tarragona, to once more visit the places of his youth before returning to the United States, on the 30th of December last; but on his arrival in Tarragona, he took very suddenly sick, and was taken to the House of the Beneficence against the wishes of the Archbishop of Tarragona, who offered him his own residence. Failing very rapidly, the Bishop received the last sacraments; and the last words he said were in answer to renewed entreaties of the Archbishop to allow himself to be transferred to the Archbishop's house: 'A thousand thanks, sir. You know my mission is not to incommode anybody.' He then did not recover his senses, and died quietly January 7th, at a quarter before one o'clock P .M."

A well-known historian sums up the Bishop's character in these words: "He seemed a stranger to fatigue, and never appeared in his proper element except when laboring to promote the interests of religion. In every part of the diocese he has left imperishable monuments of his zeal in the cause of religion, and if we were disposed to pass an opinion we should say that he was too kind-hearted, and shrank from doing or saying anything that might cause another pain."

But to return to our subject. The establishment of the new friary at Herman was not accomplished without difficulties and opposition from various sides, but these were happily overcome, and the construction of a monastery was promptly decided upon. Brother Eleutherius made the plans for the new building, and whatever flaws later critics may have found in his primitive drawings are fully explained by the scarcity of the means on hand. On October 15th Father Hyacinth, delegated by the Bishop for the purpose, blessed the cornerstone of the new edifice, and on November 29tb, the feast of "All Saints of the Franciscan Order," the building was solemnly dedicated by him and forthwith occupied by the little monastic family.

The friary was erected southwest of the church, and when in 1877 a choir was added in the rear of the sanctuary, monastery and church formed but one building. The monastery was an unpretentious structure consisting of a single wing 90 feet long and 32 feet wide. It contained a basement and two stories. The basement comprised kitchen, cellar and provision rooms, the first story contained a hall and two speaking rooms outside the enclosure, and, within, a hall, the janitor's cell, a guest room, and the dining hall. The second floor, which was only nine feet in height, contained cells for the use of the Friars.

On August 31, 1876, Father Fidelis, accompanied by two clerical students in higher orders, viz., Fr. Joseph Anthony and Fr. Anastasius, and by the lay brothers Crispin and Leonard and two lay candidates, arrived from Bavaria. It may well be imagined how welcome the newcomers were to the struggling colony, which was sadly in need of new laborers in their widening field. Equally welcome was the pecuniary help they brought with them, which went a long way in relieving the financial situation created by the erection of the Herman monastery.

Shortly after, on September 23, 1876, Father Maurice, of St. Augustine's, Pittsburg, was transferred to Herman, where he was to act as assistant pastor of the English congregation there and at the same time as instructor of the first students of the proposed college.

On the same day the two deacons, Fr. Joseph Anthony and Fr. Anastasius Joseph, were ordained priests in the Pittsburg Cathedral by Bishop Tuigg. Father Joseph Anthony celebrated his First Mass in old St. Augustine's Church, Fathers Hyacinth, Felix Maria and Fidelis assisting. Father Anastasius Joseph offered his First Mass in St. Mary's Church, Herman, Father Matthew preaching the festive sermon.

The first solemn profession in the new commissariate was that of Brother,subsequently Father Didacus, which took place on March 19, 1876. He had originally belonged to the Rheno-Westphalian Province, which then had a monastery at Cumberland, Md., and being highly gifted he had, with the permission of his superiors and of Rome, joined the Bavarian foundation with the intention of entering the holy priesthood.

It is but just to make mention here of the chief benefactors of the struggling colonies in Pittsburg and Herman. The building of the monastery at the latter place had en. tailed an outlay of some $14,000.00, and the pioneers could not in those days have hoped to bring their undertaking to a successful issue, if effectual help had not come from the Fatherland. Very Rev. Father Francis Xavier, then Provincial of the Province of Bavaria, ranks by far first among the benefactors of the Pennsylvania Province. Nearly half of the funds needed for the construction of the Herman monastery were furnished through him, and his wise counsel and generous aid were ever at the disposal of the struggling founders; and though himself in need of laborers he did not hesitate to send priests and brothers to the American mission from time to time. Our libraries, sacristies, and churches, too, could tell of many a generous gift that made its way across the Atlantic as eloquent tokens of the interest the mother-province was taking in her struggling offspring in the New World.

The Louis Missionary Union (Ludwig.Missionsverein) of Munich, Bavaria, and the Leopoldine Foundation (Leopoldinen-Stiftung) of Vienna, Austria, have likewise rendered great services to the Province of Pennsylvania in the days of its formation. They were never appealed to in vain. Other European benefactors also assisted generously and in various ways. Hence, though in the course of time the Province has become independent in means and largely American in personnel and character, it is but natural that "remembering the favors both public and private" (II. Mace. 9, 26) its present members continue faithful to the memory of their Bavarian mother, to whom they owe their existence as a province and, in a large measure, also their prosperity in these present days.

(5) Seminary and Seraphic School; Other Events in 1877
Room having thus been provided for a larger community the founders proceeded to transfer the clericate and college to Herman, Father Maurice and Father Fidelis being appointed the first lectors and professors. Father Maurice had gone to Herman already the year previous, as stated in the preceding chapter, and Father Fidelis was transferred thither on April 11, 1877. Six days later he was followed by a little band of three clerics - Fr. Philip, Fr. Patrick and Fr. Anthony, the first professed clerics of the future province - and of three classical students, William Grabbe, Alphonse Feil and Alphonse Schmidberger, the latter being boys of St. Augustine's Parish, Pittsburg. The clerics immediately began their studies under the direction of Father Fidelis, an adept in philosophical lore.

Concerning the incipient college, or Seraphic School as it is called in the language of the Order, the monastic chronicler of those days has recorded the anxious question: "Is it in God's plan that this undertaking should succeed?" It is true, the beginnings were small and insignificant, and there seemed to be ground for anxiety; however, God's blessing and protection was visibly with the undertaking, and the tiny seedling has since grown into a vigorous tree, into a fruitful nursery of vocations, without which the foundation could not have grown into a province nor could the latter have entertained just hopes of endurance in the future.

Father Maurice, the first director of the Seraphic School, wrote out a number of regulations or statutes for the new college defining the conditions for the admission of students, the discipline of the school, daily order, spiritual exercises, etc., etc. These statutes have been in use to this very day. On April 18th the divine office was for the first time recited in common in the Herman monastery. Midnight choir was introduced at the same time. On June 17th the monastic enclosure was finally established.

The first death in the Commissariate - that of Brother Eleutherius - occurred June 18th, at the Pittsburg convent. Brother Eleutherius had been down with the smallpox for ten days. It was a puzzle to the community how he could have contracted the disease, as he had nOl been outside the monastery for a number of weeks. The smallpox was epidemic in the city at the time, and the Fathers had to deal with many of its victims. It is thought that Brother Eleutherius caught the disease from their clothes. In his death the community suffered a great loss, Brother Eleutherius, as related in previous chapters, being a skillful artisan who had rendered valuable services to monastery and parish. His remains were interred in St. Mary's Cemetery, 45th Street, Pittsburg, and the people of St. Augustine's erected a suitable monument in his memory and as a token of gratitude to the builder of their altars. (There appears to be no existing photos of Brother Eleutherius.)

On June 19th the Very Rev. Commissary General of the Rheno-Westphalian Province came to Herman with two clerics - Fr. Bonaventure and Fr. Lawrence - where the latter were to make their philosophical studies together with the seminarists of the Pennsylvania foundation.

On October 17th Bishop Tuigg conferred minor orders in 51. Mary's Church, Herman, on Frs. Philip, Anthony and Patrick - the first fruits of the new cIericate.

At the end of the year 1877, four years after the arrival of the first pioneers, the status of the Commissariate of Pennsylvania was as follows:

Pittsburg: – Fr. Hyacinth, Fr. Felix Maria, Fr. Joseph Calasance, Fr. Joseph Anthony, Fr. Anastasius; clerical novices, 3: lay brothers, 2.

Herman: – Fr. Matthew, Fr. Maurice, Fr. Fidelis; professed clerics, 5; lay brothers, 3. Total, 21 Friars.