Born: 07 April 1827, Rathkeale, County Limerick
Entered: 31 October 1846, St John’s College, Fordham, Bronx, New York NY, USA - Franciae Province (FRA)
Ordained: 1861
Final Vows: 15 August 1865
Died: 23 December 1891, St Laurence O’Toole Residence, Park Avenue New York, NY, USA - Marylandiae Neo-Eboracensis Province (MARNEB)
1846-1848: St John’s College, Fordham, Bronx, New York NY, USA (FRA), Novitiate
1848-1852: Collège Sainte-Marie, Rue Bleury, Dé Lorimier, Montréal, Québec, Canada, Regency
1852-1854: St John’s College, Fordham, Bronx, New York NY, USA, Regency
1854-1858: Collège Sainte-Marie, Rue Bleury, Montréal, Québec, Canada, Regency and studying Philosophy
1858-1861: La Maison de Saint-Michel, Laval, Pays de Loire, France, Theology
1861-1863: Jesuitenkolleg, Innsbruck, Austria (ASR), Theology
1863-1865: St John’s College, Fordham, Bronx, New York NY, USA, Teaching
1865-1882: Xavier College SJ, West 15th Street, New York NY, USA, Teaching and Curate (CAMP from 1864) (NEBCAN from 1870) )MARNEB from 1879)
1882-1885: St John’s College, Fordham, Bronx, New York NY, USA, Rector from 13/07/1882 to 20/08/1885
1885-1888: Xavier College SJ, West 15th Street, New York NY, USA, Curate, PPU
1888-1889: The Gesù Roma Catholic Church, 18th and Stiles Streets, Philadelphia PA, USA, Curate
1889-1891: St John’s College, Fordham, Bronx, New York NY, USA, Procurateor and Spiritual Father
1891-1892: St Laurence O’Toole Residence and Church, Park Avenue, New York NY, USA, Curate
◆ Woodstock Letters SJ : Vol 21, Number 1
“The Struggles and Sufferings of Our First American Missionaries : Father Patrick F Dealy SJ” p210
This article was prepared by tlte late Father P F Dealy, and read before the Long Island Historical Society some years ago, under tlte title “The Struggles and Sufferings of Early American Missionaries”. While it has nothing but what may be found in tlte Relations of Father Ragueneau, we believe it contains many facts of interest to our readers and which appear here for the first time in English.
I remember to have once read that in the foreground of American History, stand these three figures - a lady, who is Isabella of Spain, a sailor, who is Columbus, and a monk, who is John Perez. But for the last, Columbus could not have sailed from Spain, and I may add, that to the last America stands indebted for having first planted on her soil the sacred sign of man's redemption.
Thence, onward through difficulties, dangers and death, Catholic missionaries pressed on to every part of the New World, and in spite of trials and bitter persecutions, at length succeeded in thei.r labor of love. Even in our own history, the period is not so very remote when it would have been unsafe for me to stand where I do this evening, since a price of one hundred pounds was put on the head of every Jesuit who dared to enter this State; still I do assure you, I have no fear of losing mine to-night.
With the declaration of American freedom, came universal freedom of worship, and though the missionary has but little to hope from the approbation of men, still with the progress which the world has made, he has less to fear from their intolerance, and therefore it is, that I have no hesitation to lay before you to-night the labors of those men who, 250 years ago, consecrated with their blood, the soil of America.
The gifts and promises of God, it has been said, have travelled from east to west, from the rising to the setting sun. In the appointed hour of God's providence, the light of faith was brought to our shores, and a new chapter was opened up in the red man's history, by the early missionaries, whose zeal knew no limit. Then for the first time did the sons of the forest see men entering their villages, whose word breathed peace and love; whose sole ambition was to spread the gospel, to teach humility, and to suffer; whose sword was the cross, and who preached sobriety, good will, charity and bright hopes beyond the grave.
The labors of those zealous and self-sacrificing men, who left home and kindred, and the golden ties of relationship, to take up their abode in the rude wigwam of the savage, to speak to him of the Great Spirit by whose power he was created, and by whose mercy he was redeemed, will ever hold a prominent place in the noblest records of human zeal and heroic enterprise, and will form an eloquent and thrill- ing page in the history of our country.
The establishment of missions among the natives naturally led to the exploration of the country, and in this way, the pioneers of the cross became the first discoverers and historians of the whole of the interior of North. America. They widely extended geographical knowledge, and did not overlook the importance of providing the means of education for the youth of the land.
The Relations, which they annually sent to Europe, became in time, such an elaborate history of the country, that Mr Parkman says, it is impossible to exaggerate their importance, as trustworthy and historical documents.
I propose, in the present paper, to speak of the labors of some of the early missionaries, and to sketch briefly the outlines of the rise and destruction of one of their missions, whose history cannot be read without profound emotion.
The facts that I shall lay before you are taken from one of the oldest and most interesting of those Relations, drawn up by Fr Paul Ragueneau and published in Paris in 1650.
It is indeed a beautiful spectacle, to behold Christian civilization, blooming amid the frosty wilderness of the North, and taking deep root, and flourishing in the hearts of the wild children of the forest.
The Wyandot nation known more generally by the name of Hurons was located on the shores of the great Lake which bears their name; they occupied a small strip of territory,and lived in twenty populous villages, which, in the year 1635, contained a population of thirty-five thousand souls. The first mission to these people was commenced in 1615 by one whom Mr Bancroft calls the unambitious Le Caron, who, years before the Pilgrims anchored within Cape Cod, had penetrated the land of the Mohawks, had passed to the North, into the hunting grounds of the Wyandots, and, bound by his vows to the life of a beggar, had, on foot, or paddling a bark canoe, gone onward and still onward, taking alms of the savages till he reached the rivers ofthe Huron.
In the year 1626, Canada received for the first time three members of the Society of Jesus - Jean De Brébeuf, Charles Lallemant and Edward Massé. Their reception in Québec on the part of some interested merchants was most inauspi- cious, and they would have returned whence they came, had not some of their brethren given them a shelter and supplied them with provisions.
Brébeuf set forth immediately on the arduous mission to the Hurons, but having been prevented by unforeseen causes from prosecuting his voyage, he set out anew in the following spring in company with Father De La Noul, and, after months of toil, made his first visit to the barbarous scene of his labors, his sufferings and his death. The breaking out of war between France and England in 1629 interrupted for a time the progress of the missions, but on the restoration of Québec to the French crown, the missionaries returned and resumed their labors. From that time till the Iroquois war, there were ten years of peace and missionary triumph. Dr O'Callaghan, whose incalculable services to the history of New York are well known, says that within ten years the Jesuits had completed the examination of the country from Lake Superior to the Gulf, and founded several villages of Christian neophytes on the borders of the upper Lakes. While the intercourse of the Dutch was yet confined to the Indians in the vicinity of Fort Orange, and five years before Eliot, of New England, had addressed a single word to the Indians in the neighborhood of Boston Harbor, the French missionaries planted the Cross at Sault Ste Marie, whence they looked down on the Sioux country and the valley of the Mississippi.
The last days of July in the year 1634 witnessed one hundred and forty canoes, with six or seven hundred Hurons descending the St Lawrence, and landing beneath the fortified rock of Québec for the purpose of bartering their furs for various commodities supplied by the traders. Before embarking to return home, Champlain, the governor of the province, introduced the missionaries to the chiefs and warriors. “These”, said he, “are our fathers. We love them more than ourselves. They do not go among you for your furs. They have left their friends and their country to show you the way to heaven. If you love the French, as you say, then love and honor these our fathers”. Two chiefs rose to reply; Bréebeuf rose next, and spoke in broken Huron. The mission was accepted, and on the 31st day of July; 1634, Fathers Anthony Daniel and John De Brébeuf, the first missionaries to the Hurons, prepared to depart. It was the day that sealed their resolution and saw them ready to go forth on that mission which was to lead them to cruel martyrdom. They embarked amid salvos of cannon from the ships, and set forth for the wild scene of their apos- tleship.
The way to the Huron country was pathless and long, by rock and torrent and the gloom of savage forests. The goal was more dreary yet. Toil, hardship, famine, filth, sickness, solitude, insult, perhaps death. But the prospect of these sufferings did not stop the progress of the Jesuits. The sons of Loyola never retreated. The mission they founded in a tribe ended only with the extinction of the tribe itself. Nowhere, says Mr. Parkman, is the power of courage, faith, and an unflinching purpose more strikingly displayed than in the record of their lives.
They reckoned the distance at nine hundred miles; but distance was the least repellant feature of this most arduous journey. Barefoot, lest they should injure the frail vessel, each crouched in his canoe, toiling with unpractised hands to propel it. The canoes were soon separated; and for more than a month, the Frenchmen rarely or never met. Brébeuf spoke a little Huron, but ,Daniel and Davost were doomed to a silence unbroken, save by the unintelligible complaints and menaces of the Indians, of whom many were sick with the epidemic, and all were terrified, desponding and sullen. The toil was extreme; Brébeuf counted thirty-five carrying-places, where the canoes were lifted from the water, and carried on the shoulders round rapids. More than fifty times, besides, they were forced to wade in the raging current, pushing up their empty barks. Brébeuf and his companions tried to do their part and bore their share of the baggage across the carrying-places, sometimes a distance of several miles. The Indians themselves were often spent with fatigue. Brébeuf, a man of iron frame and of a nature unconquerably resolute, doubted if his strength would sustain him to the journey's end. All suffered much hardship at the hands of their ill-humored conductors.
Descending French River and following the lonely shores of the great Georgian Bay, the canoe which carried Breébeuf at length neared its destination, thirty days after leavitng Three Rivers. Before him, stretched in savage silence, lay the forest of the Hurons. Did his spirit sink or his courage fail, as he approached his weary home, oppressed With a dark foreboding of what the future should bring forth? A fervor more intense and unquenchable urged him on to more appalling perils. His masculine heart had lost the sense of fear, and his intrepid nature was fired with a zeal, before which doubts and uncertainties fled like the mists of the morning. Brébeuf landed here, and made the best of his way to the village, where he anxiously waited the arrival of his companions. One by one they appeared, weary and worn, and when at length all were assembled, they raised in the heart of the Huron wilderness, the first humble chapel to the glory of God. “For marbles and precious stones”, writes one of the missionaries, “we employed only bark; but the path to heaven is as open through ·a roof of bark, as through arched ceilings of silver and gold”.
The building without was strictly Indian, but within, the priests with the aid of their tools. made such innovations in the rude architecture, as astonished the ruder children of the forest. There was no lack of visitors, for the house of the black-robes contained marvels, the fame of which was noised abroad to the uttermost confines of the Huron nation. Chief among them was the clock. The guests would sit in expectant silence by the hour, waiting to hear it strike. They thought it was alive, and asked what it ate. As the last stroke sounded, one of the Frenchmen would cry “Stop”, and to the admiration of the company the obedient clock was silent. The mill was another wonder. Besides these, there was a prism, a magnifying glass and a magnet which were the astonishment of all. “What does the Captain say?” was the frequent question; for by this title of honor they designated the clock. “When he strikes twelve”, he says, “hang on the kettle”, and when he strikes four times, he says “Get up, and go home”.
Both interpretations were well remembered. At noon, visitors were never wanting to share the fathers sagamite; but at the stroke of four, all rose and departed, leaving the missionaries for a time in peace. Now the door was fastened, and they discussed among themselves the prospects of the mission, compared their several experiences, and took counsel for the future. But the standing topic of their evening conversation was the Huron language. Concerning this, each had some new discovery to relate, some new suggestion to offer; and in the task of analyzing its construction and deducing its hidden laws, these intelligent and highly cultivated minds found a congenial employment. But while zealously laboring to perfect their knowledge of the language, they spared no pains to turn their present acquirements to good account. Was man, woman or child sick or suffering, they were at hand with assistance and relief, adding, as they saw opportunity, explanations of Christian doctrine, pictures of heaven and hell, and exhortations to embrace the faith. At every opportunity, the missionaries gathered together the children of the viilage at their house. On these occasions, Brébeuf, for greater solemnity, put on a surplice. First he chanted the Lord's Prayer, translated by Father Daniel into Huron rhymes - the children chanting in their turn. Next he taught them the sign of the cross; made them repeat the Ave, the Creed and the Ten Commandments; questioned them as to past instructions, gave them briefly a few new ones; and dismissed them with a present of two or three strings of beads. At times, the elders of the people were induced to assemble at the house of the missionaries, who explained to them the principal points of Christian doctrine. The auditors grunted their consent to every proposition; but when urged to adopt the faith which so readily met their approval, they had always the same reply:” It is good for the French; but we arc another people with different customs”. Notwithstanding all their exhortations, the missionaries for the present baptized but few. Indeed, during the first two years, they baptized no adult, except those at the point of death; for with excellent reason, they feared backsliding and apostasy. Meanwhile, more clergymen were on their way to urge on the work of the cross.
In 1635. Fathers Pijart and Le Mercier were sent to Canada, and in the midsummer of the following year, their number was increased by three more, who, on their way to the Huron Mission, had passed Daniel and Davost descending to Québec, to establish there a seminary for Huron children. Scarcely had the new comers arrived, when the pestilence, which, for two years past, had from time to time visited the Huron towns, broke forth with ten-fold violence, and with it appeared a new and fearful scourge - the small-pox. Terror was universal. The missionaries passed in the depth of winter from village to village. No house was left unvisited. Everywhere was heard the wail of sick and dying children. The fathers spoke words of comfort and kindness, and sought to reliev·e their bodily distress by remedies administered to squalid men and women crouch- ing at the sides of houses in all the stages of distemper. The body cared for, the priests next addressed themselves to the soul. The Jesuit, after enlarging for a time, in broken Huron, on the brevity of mortal weal or woe, passed next to the joys of heaven, and the pains of hell. His· piEI:ures of infernal fires and torturing demons were readily comprehended, but with respect to the advantages of paradise, he was slow to effect conviction. Doubts of all sorts started up in their rude minds with regard to the substantial advantages of the new faith, and several of them, who had embraced Christianity, were filled with anxiety, in view of the probable want of tobacco in heaven, and their incapacity for enjoying life without it.
“I wish to go where my ancestors have gone”, was the common reply. “Do they hunt the cariban in heaven?” asked the anxious savage. “Oh, no”, replied the father. Then, returned the Indian, “I will not go there. Idleness is bad everywhere”.
To comprehend the real value of the difficulties, which the missionaries constantly had to encounter, we must imagine what was the superstition they had to displace. The belief in Manitous or spirits, inhabiting animals and protecting or cursing men, was general throughout North America; human sacrifices were also general; the power of the medicine men was arbitrary for life or death; polygamy prevailed among some tribes, and indiscriminate intercourse, to some extent, among all. It was a superstition without mercy, without morality, without remorse; under its sway, no mental or social culture was possible. To them religion was a charm against disease, and baptism a safeguard against small-pox and misfortune. Against this terrible barbarism did the missionaries now put forth their power. What must we do, they asked, that your God may take pity on us? Brébeuf’s answer was uncompromising:- “Believe said he, in Him; keep His commandments; abjure your faith in dreams; take but one wife, and be true to her; give up your superstitious feasts and assemblies of debauchery; eat no human flesh; never give feasts to demons; and make a vow, if God will deliver you from this plague, to build him a chapel”. The terms were too hard, but Brébeuf would bate them nothing.
Meanwhile the missionaries found here a field of labor just suited to the extent of their charity and the ardor of their zeal. They traversed the country, plunged into the forests, penetrated into the very huts of the savages, and by their gentle manners and soothing language, and a thousand services which they cheerfully rendered, they gradually gained the confidence of the natives, and were at length listened to with attention. To induce them to accept the yoke of civilization it was necessary, first, to subdue them to that of the Gospel, and they succeeded. With no other arms, save a crucifix, the staff of the pilgrim, and the breviary of the priest, in the hand, the humble, though fearless Jesuit, directed his steps to the interior of these wild and almost deserted regions. He penetrated the densest forests; he toiled through vast morasses; he waded the shallow streams and swam the deep ones ; he clambered over the mountains and scaled. the beetling crags; he traversed vast prairies and desert plains, and abandoning himself to the protection of Providence, he confronted ferocious beasts and more ferocious men. All these fatigues, all these perils had God alone for witness. The missionary braved them, not for earthly hme, or honor, but with a single and unflinching eye to the conquest of souls. Wherever he encountered a savage, he extended towards him his arms, and by signs made him comprehend the object of his mission. By words of kindness and smiles, that betokened peace, he sought to allure him to the way of the cross. If he resisted, as sometimes happened, the missionary was nowise discouraged. He became their servant and slave; he yielded to their caprices; he followed them to the chase; he interested himself in their affairs; he became a partner in their toils, their sufferings and their amusements.
Many of these holy men, too, fell victims to their zeal, and bedewed the earth with their blood; few of their number died the death common to all men, or slept at last in the grounds which their church had consecrated; but their blood proved as it ever has, the veritable seed of Christians. New warriors instantly occupied the post of the slaughtered, and followed up their work, until little by little, the barbarians were instructed in the laws of God, and in the precepts and obligations of Christianity. which at length they embraced with a fervor, a simplicity, and a piety that would have honored the primitive ages of the Church.
The missionaries, while they labored for the conversion of the Indians, with an energy and zeal, which could not be surpassed, never had the folly to assume towards them a haughty or overbearing tone. In humble imitation of the great apostle, they made themselves all things to all, and whether in China or in Japan, in Africa, in India or in America, they all had but one design, which, like a bright star, preceded them and shone upon their path, and was the guide of all their actions - Tize Greater Glory of God and the welfare of their race.
The march of civilization among the Hurons had now commenced, and it was not to cease. In the summer of the year 1637, the foundation of the new mission of the Immaculate Conception was laid in the largest of the Huron towns. No sooner was the mission house finished, than the missionaries began their preparations for a notable ceremony. At one end, stood the altar ornamented with such decorations as they had. On it was a crucifix, while above, hung several pictures, among them, a painting of Christ and another of the Virgin Mother. Never before were such splendors seen in the land of the Hurons. Crowds gathered from afar and gazed with awe at the marvels of the sanctuary. A great event had called forth all this preparation. Of the many baptisms, achieved by the fathers in the course of their indefatigable ministry, the subjects had all been infants or adults at the point of death; but at length, a Huron, in full health and manhood, respected and influential in his tribe, had been won over to the faith, and was now to be baptized with solemn ceremonial, in the first chapel that ever adorned the Huron wilderness. It was an interesting scene. The Indians were there in throngs, and the house was closely packed with warriors, young and old, their eyes glittering and riveted on the spectacle before them. The priests no longer in their usual robes of black, but radiant in the vestments of the altar; the pealing of bells, and the swinging of censers wafting clouds of sweet odors to heaven, all combined to impress solemnly the minds of the savage beholders. To the missionaries it was a day of triumph and of hope. The ice had been broken; the wedge had entered, and light had dawned at laston the long night of heathendom. There now followed a harvest of converts, who gave, in many cases, undeniable proof of great piety and fervor. In some towns, the Christians outnumbered the heathen, and in nearly all they formed a large portion. The good Father Ragueneau the Superior, surveying the wonderful fruits gathered in this first field of labors, gives expression to the delight with which his soul overflowed in the following passage:-
Without doubt, the angels of heaven have been rejoiced at seeing, that in all the villages of this country, the faith is respectcd, and that Christians now glory in that name which was in reproach but a few years ago. For my part, even if I had lived among them for fifty years, I could never have hoped to see one-tenth part of the piety, of the virtue and sanctity of which I have been an eyewitness in the visits made to those churches, which have but lately grown up in the bosom of infidelity. It has given me a sensible delight to witness the diligence of Christians who anticipated the light ofthe sun to come to the public prayers; and who, though harassed with toil, came again in immense throngs before night to render anew their homage to God; to see the little children emulatrng the piety of their parents, and accustoming themselves, from the most tender age to offer up to God their little sufferings, griefs and labors. But what has charmed me most, is to sec that the sentiments of faith have penetrated so deeply into the hearts of those whom we but lately called barbarians, and I can say it with entire truth, that divine grace has destroyed in most of them the fears, the desires and the joys inspired heretofore by the feelings of nature.
The central mission, called the Immaculate Conception, of which the chief house was St Mary's, was situated on the river Wye, which enters the vast Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. A few years ago, I visited this memorable spot and with the assistance of a few men was able to lay bare the wails and trace the ditches of this old French station, over which the forest had long since resumed its reign. The fortified work which inclosed the buildings was in the form of a parailelogram, and fronted the river, somewhat more than a hundred feet distant from it. Two or three times a year, the missionaries assembled here to take counsel together, and determine their future action. Hither, also, they came at intervals for a period of meditation and prayer, to nerve themselves and gain new inspiration for their stern task. Besides being the magazine of the mission, it was the scene of a bountiful hospitality, and one single year witnessed three thousand red men who from the different tribes shared the hospitality of the priests at this missionary station. At one time the missionaries had no communication with Québec or Montreal for the space of three years (1641-1644), during which their clothing fell into rags, and they suffered grievously for the necessaries of life. Still they persevered with the ardor of apostles, and their number went on constantly increasing. Within thirteen years this remote wilderness was visited by sixty missionaries, members of the Society of Jesus, all chosen men, and ready to shed their blood for the faith.
The mission of the Conception was the oldest of those established among the Hurons. It was the one, too, which set the brightest example of every virtue, and shone as a brilliant luminary in the midst of the wilderness, presenting a model for the imitation of the neighboring tribes. For fifteen years the Huron missions continued to flourish, gathering into the Christian fold immense numbers of Indians, establishing amid the snow-clad wilderness of the north, tlourishing communities, and producing fruits, as ripe and as lovely for heaven, as ever did the more favored c!tmes of the South. Like those of Paraguay, which they rivalled, they were broken up by instruments not less fierce - the implacable Iroquois - the deadly foes of the Hurons and their allies, the French. From religious animosity and political jealousy, the Dutch traders at Fort Orange, now Albany, constantly supplied the Iroquois with fire-arms.
These would leave their towns, lie in ambush, break in on unguarded places; burn, hack, and murder the neophytes; exterminate whole villages, and destroy the nations, whom
the fathers hoped to convert. At two different times did the Iroquois fall upon the Huron wigwams. First, on the 4th of July, I648, when they sacked the flourishing village of St Joseph; and, secondly, when on the 16th of March, 1649, a thousand hostile savages massacred the inhabitants and scattered the glories of the mission of St. Ignatius.
We will glance rapidly at the history of both these mclancholy occurrences. Teanaustaye, or St Joseph, lay on the southeastern frontier of the Huron country, near the foot of a range of forest-covered hills, and about fifteen miles from St Mary's. It had been the chief town of the nation, and its population numbered at least two thousand. It was well fortified with palisades, after the Huron manner, and was esteemed the chief bulwark of the country. Its inhabitants had been truculent and intractable heathens, but many of them had surrendered to the faith, and for four years Father Anthony Daniel had labored among them with excellent results.
It was the morning of the 4th of July, 1648. Scarce a warrior was to be seen. Some were absent in quest of game or on a warlike expedition, and some had gone on a trading party to the French settlements. Daniel had just finished saying Mass, and his flock still knelt at their devotions. It was but the day before; that he had returned to there, warmed with new fervor, from his meditations in retreat at St Mary's. Suddenly, a roar of voices, shrill with terror, burst upon the silence of the town. “The Iroquois! the Iroquois!” The enemy had approached the village under the cover of the night, and thus effected a surprise. The greatest panic and confusion prevailed, and the terror-stricken Hurons flocked around the father as their protector. He animated them by his presence where the danger was most imminent, and encouraged them to defend their village. But it was of no avail. The dreaded name of the Iroquois was ever sufficient to intimidate a Huron. In the meantime, the enemy took possession of the place, and those who were able to flee escaped to the neighboring village. Not so the priest. Forgetful of himself, he eagerly sought out the aged, infirm and sick, to prepare them for their fate. Daniel then returned to the chapel, which was already crowded with Hurons. Some he baptized, others he confessed and absolved, and upon all he bestowed appropriate words of consolation. The enemy soon learned their place of refuge, and shrieking forth their fierce war-whoop, rushed in a body to the church. “Fly!” screamed the priest, driving his flock before him; “I will stay here. We shall meet above!” Many of them escaped through an opening in the palisade; but Daniel refused to follow, for there still might be souls seeking salvation. The hour had come for which he had long prepared himself. Alone and undismayed, he came forth from the church to meet the Iroquois. When they saw him confronting them with a look kindled with the inspiration of martyrdom, awed by his appearance, they recoiled for a moment, as he advanced; then recovering from their surprise, they pierced him with a volley of arrows, that tore through his robes and his flesh. A gun-shot followed; the ball pierced his heart; and the proto-martyr of the Huron Mission fell dead, sighing the name of Jesus. The shepherd gave his life for his flock. They rushed upon him with yells of triumph, stripped him naked, and treated his lifeless body with every indignity. The town was now in a blaze, and when the flames reached the church, his body which they flung into it became a holocaust consumed in the fires of the burning church. The Hurons, who escaped, found refuge among their brethren at St Mary's. About seven hundred, consisting principally of women and children; were taken prisoners by the Iroquois and carried away to be tortured. Father Anthony Daniel who fell was one of the founders of the Huron Mission. He was a native of Dieppe in France, and was born of wealthy and respectable parents. For fourteen years he labored in the Huron Mission w1th indcfatigable zeal, and he left after him an example of every virtue; the Indians, even those who were infidels, cherished a strong attachment for him, for he had won the hearts of all who had ever known him.
The destruction of St Joseph's spread terror through the land. Town after town was now abandoned and the Huron nation was doomed to melt away, first, wasted by pestilence and small-pox, and then to fall beneath the tomahawks of their deadly foes. The Iroquois, encouraged by the success of their late attack upon St Joseph's, returned early in the spring of the following year, and on the 16th of March, 1649, about two thousand of them, well supplied with fire-arms, surrounded the village of St Ignatius, which with St Louis and three other towns, formed the mission of the same name. This place was fortified with palisades, fifteen or sixteen feet high, and surrounded by a deep ditch. But before daylight on the 16th, the fierce yell of the enemy startled the wretched inhabitants wrapped in profound sleep, and bursting in upon them, before resistance could be made, they cut them down with knives and hatchets, and set fire to their cabins. The whole was the work of a few minutes; out of four hundred inhabitants, but three escaped to give the alarm to the neighboring village of St Louis, one league distant. The Iroquois, following up their success, rushed in the dim light of the early dawn towards St Louis. The three fugitives had given the alarm. The number of inhabitants here was less than seven hundred, and, of these, all who had strength to fly, excepting about eighty warriors, made for a place of safety. Brébeufs converts entreated him to escape with them, but the Norman hero, says Mr Parkman, bold scion of a warlike stock, had no thought of flight. His post was in the teeth of danger, to cheer those who fought and open heaven to those who fell. Lallemant, his colleague, slight of frame and frail of constitution, trembled despite himself but divine grace mastered the weakness of nature, and he, too, refused to fly. The Hurons fought with the utmost desperation, but the Iroquois with unabated ferocity cut through the palisades, and captured the surviving defenders, Brébeuf and Lallemant. among the rest. But two Hurons escaped to carry the sad details to St Mary's. In the flush of victory the enemy meditated an attack on this station, and sent forth small parties to reconnoitre it, but a panic had fallen on them, occasioned by the impression that they were about to be attacked by a combined body of French and Hurons. They planted stakes in the bark houses of St Ignatius and bound to them a crowd of prisoners, male and female, from old age to infancy, husbands, mothers and chi1dren, side by side. Then as they retreated, they set fire to the town and laughed at the shrieks of anguish that rose from the blazing dwellings. On the afternoon of the 16th, the day on which the two priests were captured, Brébeuf was led apart and bound to a stake. He seemed more concerned for his captive converts than for himself. and addressed them in a loud voice, exhorting them to suffer patiently, and promising heaven as their reward. The Iroquois, incensed, scorched him from head to foot, to silence him; whereupon, in the tone of a master, he threatened them with everlasting flames, for persecuting the worshippers of God. As he continued to speak, with voice and countenance unchanged, they cut away his lower lip and thrust a red-hot iron down his throat. He still held his tall form erect and defiant, with no sign or sound of pain; and they tried other means to overcome him. They led out Lallemant, that Brébcuf might sec him tortured. They had tied strips of bark, smeared with pitch, about his naked body. Whcn he saw the condition of his superior, he could not hide his agitation, and called out to him, with a broken voice, in the words of St. Paul, “We are made a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men”. Then he threw himself at Brébeufs feet; upon which the Iroquois seized him, made him fast to a stake, and set fire to the bark that enveloped him. As the flame rose, he threw his arms upward, and with a shriek of supplication to heaven he offered up his sacrifice to God.
Lallemant was but six months engaged in the Indian Mission, yet was he destined to bear off one of the first crowns. In the colleges of France he had acquired high honors as a scholar, and was distinguished for his exact scientific knowledge. He was born at Paris, on the 31st of October, 1610, and died a martyr at the stake, on the 17th of March, 1649 in the thirty-ninth year of his age.
Next, they hung around Brebeufs neck a chain of hatchets heated red hot; they cut off his hands, and applied red-hot tomahawks under his armpits, but the indomitable priest stood like a rock, insensible alike to pain and torture, to the great astonishment of his tormentors. In derision of baptism, they poured boiling water on the head of the two missionaries, saying: “We baptize you, that you may be happy in heaven; for nobody can be saved without a good baptism”. Brébeuf would not flinch; and, in a rage, they cut slices of flesh from his limbs and devoured them before his eyes. To complete the tragedy, they tore out his heart and drank his blood, gushing warm from its source, thinking to imbibe with it some portion of his courage.
But let us turn from these revolting tortures, and these monsters of cruelty, since, in one day, all their victims were robed in the glory of immortality. Let us drop the veil over them, and with it, a tear over the horrible blindness and perverseness of human nature when left to its own impulses, without the light of grace and the softening influence of Christian civilization.
Among all the missionaries, few displayed the gifts of an apostle more abundantly than John De Brébeuf. Mr Parkman calls him the Ajax of the Huron Mission, its truest hero, and its greatest martvr. He came of a noble race, the same from which sprang the English earls of Arundel; but never had the mailed barons of his line confronted a fate so appalling, with so prodigious a constancy. To the last he refused to flinch, and as we are told, “his death was the astonishment of his murderers”. For fifteen years he went through the same round of duties, teaching, preaching, visiting the cabins, and each day, he became more inflamed with zeal and more animated for the salvation of souls. For twelve years that I have known him, writes Ragueneau, that I have seen him, alternately superior, inferior, and on equality with others; sometimes engaged in temporal affairs, sometimes in missionary toils, and labors; dealing with the Indians, whether Christians, infidels or enemies; in the midst of sufferings, persecution, and calumny - I never once saw him, either in anger, or even manifesting the slightest indication of displeasure. He was a native of Bayeux, in Normandy, and was born on the 25th of March, I593, He entered the Society of Jesus at Rouen on the 5th of October, 1617, and he was crowned with martyrdom on the 16th day of March, 1649, in the fifty-sixth year of his age.
The bodies of the two illustrious missionaries were carried to St Mary's and buried in the cemetery there. The skull of Brebeuf was preserved as a relic. His family sent from France a silver bust of their martyred kinsman, to enclose the skull; and to this day the bust and the relic are preserved with pious care by the nuns of the Hotel Dieu at Québec. When he first visited the Huron tribes, in 1626, there was not, in all that unexplored wilderness, one Indian who invoked the name of the true God. At his death, he saw gathered around him as an encircling crown, no less than seven thousand children of the forest, whom he and his brethren had baptized, and he beheld the sacred sign of man's redemption raised as a standard of triumph, in a place, where, since the creation of the world, no true worshipper of God had ever been found! He died like a faithful soldier, at his post, but his death struck the death-knell of the Huron nation. Within two weeks after the disasters of St Ignatius and St Louis, they abandoned their homes, and bade farewell for ever to their ancient domains. Scattered by the exterminating hand of the Iroquois, they roamed in fugitive bands, northward and eastward, through the half-thawed wilderness, and sought a hiding place on the rocks and islands of Lake Huron. A few, under the auspices of Ragueneau, settled in the island of Orléans near Québec; some went South of Lake Erie, and buried themselves in the forests of Pennsylvania; while some are to be found at a later day in the vicinity of Sandusky, under the name of Wyandots, but the greater part of them, after deliberation, formed a settlement on a neighboring island of the lake, called, Isle St Joseph. Thither, therefore, they transported on rafts all that they possessed. St Mary's was stripped of everything that could be moved ; then they set it on fire, and one short hour saw consumed the results of nine or ten yecars of toil. The Hurons as a nation ceased to exist.
In 1650, says Mr Shea, Upper Canada was a desert; the Iroquois war, incited and armed by the Dutch, drove the missionaries from the depths of the forest, and proved fatal to the allies of the French. Not a mission now remained; not a single Indian was to be found, where, but a year before, the cross towered in each of their many villages, and hundreds of Christians gathered round their fifteen missions.
From some of the old maps published by the Jesuits in Paris. in the year 1660, it appears that their missionaries, long before this date, had traced the highway of waters from Lake Erie to Lake Superior, and had gained a glimpse of Lake Michigan. As early as 1638, they were able to penetrate the present territory of the United States and plant the cross in three different points: at Sault Ste Marie in Michigan, among the Abnakis of Maine, the Mohawks of Albany and other tribes of the five nations, so that in the very heart of New York, at that early day, says Mr Bancroft, the solemn services of the Roman Catholic Church were chanted as securely as in any part of christendom.
Six fathers had won the Martyr's crown; one was mutilated for life; and some of those who escaped had only deferred their time a few years. The missions in the western part of New York were destroyed, and Father Garnier put to death. Father Isaac Jogues, illustrious for courage and sufferings, escaped with mutilation; he returned to France, but, burning with zeal, came back some years after, and received the glorious crown of martyrdom in the Mohawk valley. This mission among the ferocious Iroquois was reopened again and again until the State passed into English hands, when the penal laws against Catholic missionaries were most rigorously enforced.
But why single out these apostles? Jogues and Le Mayne, the martyrs I have mentioned; Allonez of Lake Superior; Granier of the Illinois; Marquette of Michigan; Gravier of the Miamis; Guiguas of Wisconsin; Boullanger of the Choctaws; De Guyenne of the Alabamas; White of the Susquehannas; Rasles of the Abnakis, and Marest of Labrador. These are names which cannot be forgotten in the annals of our country. Their memory dwells on the Mississippi, by the distant shores of Lake Huron and Lake Superior, in the valley of the Mohawk, among the mountains of New England, and on the banks of the Penobscot. Some others equal in service and in sufferings might be recalled, but these will suffice, as representatives of the missionaries, in the field which.! have been considering.
Nor are the services which they rendered to civilization to be passed over. Within the mission, within the breast of the believer, the new life of civilization began; but there it did not end. Every wigwam-chapel gathered its colony, which always matured into a village. The progress, indeed, was slow at first, as must be every progress from barbarism upwards; as was Roman, Gothic, Celtic and Norman progress. But we have every reason to assume, from what progress was made, while the missions flourished, that both the individual and the family would haw been reclaimed and the new Indian society gradually developed, had time enough been granted.
One of our statesmen, Hon James H Paulding, speaking of the remains of those missions was led to say, that much was due to French courtesy and sobriety, and, much more,
perhaps, to the influence of a religion, which, though often calumniated, exercises a dominion over the minds of untutored Indians, far more powerful and far more salutary, than
has hitherto resulted from the influence of any other.
Their dictionaries, their grammars, and their labors on the several languages of the nations, among which they resided, are, along with the innumerable native traditions which they collected, at this day, the most valuable part of all we possess concerning the red race of America. Besides being men of science, they were acute observers and made several useful discoveries. Their reports afford us most interesting information regarding the natural history of the country. At an early date, they describe the Aurora-borealis, and furnish minute descriptions of the eclipses both lunar and solar, as well as of the comets and earthquakes, which occurred in their time. Not only do they describe the great lakes, but they were also the first to call attention to the great Falls of Niagara as far back as 1647-8. They discovered the oil-springs of Olean, and they were the first explorers of the northern lakes and rivers. In 1673 the Mississippi was discovered by Father Marquette who started in a canoe from Lake Michigan, and descended the river to Arkansas. Other Jesuits broke paths in the wilderness and forest, and prepared the way for the discovery and population of new countries, and made known to commercial enterprise, lakes and rivers and boundless seas. Father Albanel did what soldiers and adventurers had not the courage to undertake - he opened a road from Quebec to Hudson's Bay; and in this, our day, the illustrious De Smet, stimulated by zeal for the conversion of the Indian tribes of the West, penetrated to the Rocky Mountains, ascended the Mississippi and the Missouri to their sources, and thus realized in his own person, the desires and the hopes of the ancient members of his Institute.
They were the first to make wine from the native grape, wax for candles from the wild laurel, and incense from the gum-tree. They drew attention to the cotton plant and mulberry tree of the Mississippi valley; they introduced the sugar-cane from their gardens in New Orleans; they first planted the peach in Illinois, and were the first to introduce wheat and the plough into the prairies. The Indians had habitually planted their maize in holes made with a dibble; but the Jesuits taught them better. If, as has been said, “a plough proper in a field arable” be the noblest escutcheon, then is it theirs ; if
In ancient davs the sacred plough employed
The kings and awful fathers of mankind
a share of the same awe and honor belongs to the early missionaries of our country. They pointed out the locality of many minerals ; they were the first to work the copper mines of Lake Superior for ornaments for the altars at the Sault; and the first to acquaint New York of the existence of her own salt springs. About this latter discovery there is an anecdote worth repeating. When Father Simon Le Moyne communicated the fact to his Dutch correspondent, Domine Megapolensis of New Amsterdam, that cautious minister, in laying it before “the classes of Amsterdam”, expresses himself in great doubt “whether this information be true, or whether it be a Jesuit lie”. It turned out to be true, as the annual revenues of New York State can testify.
In conclusion, I may be permitted to add one word on the men themselves, of whom I have noticed but a few. It would be an indiscretion to suggest reflections which their deeds will awaken in every Christian soul, and which they kindled in the breasts of the ferocious Indian, who wandered through the frozen wilderness of the North, or roamed by the banks of the Mohawk. But I must observe, in contemplating the supernatural virtues which I have briefly sketched, that they were the fruits of gifts and graces which were not only fair to look upon, and mighty to subdue the arts of the wicked one, and to unbind in everv land the fetters of his victims, but which had a yet deeper and more awful signi ficance, in as much as they revealed the immediate and intimate presence of God, as surely as the golden-fringed cloud tells of the great orb behind, whose rays it obscures but cannot hide. These men were mighty, but evidently not by their own strength; valiant, because they feared nothing but sin; patient for they walked in the steps of the Crucified; and wise beyond the children of Adam, because to them it had been said by Him who once gave the assurance to earlier missionaries: “It is not you that speak, but the spirit of your Father that speaketh in you”.
◆ Woodstock Letters SJ : Vol 21, Number 1
Obituary
“Father Patrick Dealy SJ” p261
Father Dealy was born in Galway, Ireland, in 1827. His early education was obtained in the grammar schools of New York City. In 1843, two years after the opening of St John's College, Fordham, he entered that institution, pursuing his studies there for several years. On the 31st of October, 1845, he entered the Society. After six years of regency at Montreal and Fordham, he studied his philosophy at St Mary's College, Montreal, and after one year more of teaching he was sent to Laval for his theology. Returning thence in 1862, he went through his tertianship at the old seminary, Fordham, Fr Georg'e Schneider being the Father Instructor. In 1864 he was appointed professor of Belles Lettres at Fordham. From that post he was transferred to St Francis Xavier's, West Sixteenth St, New York, where he labored for many years at parish work under the pastorship of Father Merrick. He later on succeeded Father Merrick as pastor, at a time when the new church of St Francis Xavier was well nigh completed.
Father Dealy was most highly esteemed by the late Cardinal McCloskey, and was chosen by his Eminence, about twenty years ago, to take charge of the first pilgrimage that ever left the shores of America for Rome. In the Eternal City he was treated with distinction by the Pope, the Cardinals and the other dignitaries of the Church. On behalf of the pilgrims he presented Pope Pius IX with a handsome American flag, and the Holy Father was so pleased with the gift and the manner of its presentation, that he gave Father Dealy a superb gold chalice set with precious stones, and a valuable missal encased in massive metal covers.
In 1871 Father Dealy founded the Xavier Union, which is now the Catholic Club, and was for many years its spiritual director. He also took a prominent part in the organization
of the Catholic Union, a body of prominent Catholics which watches over the interests of the Catholics of New York State. He was appointed spiritual director by Cardinal
McCloskey,. and was the medium of communication between the Society and the Cardinal.
Father Dealy was made Rector of St John's College, Fordham, in 1882. During his term many improvements were effected at Fordham, and chief among these are the remodelling of St John's Hall and the repair of the college roads. For the work which he was enabled to accomplish in St John's Hall, the old seminary, he was indebted entirely to the generosity of one of Ours, at that time prefect of the Third Division, who donated to the College the handsome legacy of five thousand dollars. Father Dealy laid the foundation of the New Science Hall, a beautiful structure, which was completed by his successor. At the close of his rectorship in 1885, Father Dealy returned to St Francis Xavier's, but was subsequently sent to Boston, thence to Philadelphia, and finally to St Lawrence's in 84th St., New York, where he died at 2 o'clock am, Wednesday, December 23, 1891. He had been ill with pneumonia since the Thursday immediately preceding his death. His death was calm and peaceful. Father Dealy was perhaps better known in New York than any of our fathers, and he had many friends whom his polished manners had attracted to him. He was a man of tact and prudence, and, though he could not be called a great preacher, the care he took in preparing his sermons gave him at one time a local renown. The same care he bestowed upon whatever literary work he undertook. An example of this may be seen in the article from his pen in the present number on “The Struggles and Sufferings of our first American Missionaries”.' It was well received at the time and met with praise even from Protestant journals. RIP
◆ Woodstock Letters SJ : Vol 46, Number 2
“A Tribute to the late Father Patrick Dealy SJ” p279
In the course of his speech during the celebration, April 18, of the silver jubilee of the formal opening of the new home of the Catholic Club of New York City, Mr Percy J King, the president, paid this tribute to the founder of the club, Father Patrick Dealy SJ:
'The existence of this club is due to the initiative of some nineteen men who belonged to a sodality that met and still meets in St Francis Xavier's Church in West Sixteenth Street, known as the Xavier Alumni Sodality. They planned a social club, guided and encouraged by Father Dealy, their spiritual director, who seemed to be possessed of a genius for friendship and cooperation. His special care was the library, and to his efforts in a large part is due the possession of that splendid collection of books we have upstairs. The vision of these men must have been wide and their courage undaunted, because not quite four years later we find them owning a house and shortly outgrowing it and
appointing committees to seek new quarters.
◆ Woodstock Letters SJ : Vol 65, Number 1 p 27
History of the Maryland-New York Province: Fordham University
by Edward I Devitt SJ
In 1882, Father P F Dealy succeeded Father Gockeln. During his administration, the old Seminary building was refitted, the Scientific Building was begun; and arrangements were made to introduce military drill; the lawn was beautified and the road leading to the gate macadamized. It was at this time that Fordham lost its beautiful woods as well as the River Bronx, the favorite bathing place for the stu- dents. They were taken over by the City to form part of the great park "system" as it was called. As early as 1868, the Southern Boulevard which was laid across the grounds, had separated that wooded portion from the rest of the property. The land thus taken by the road was not paid for except by exempting the college from assessments. For the woods, $93,966.25 were accorded, but not paid until 1889.
◆ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_F._Dealy
Patrick F. Dealy was a Jesuit priest and the eleventh president of St. John's College (now Fordham University) from 1882 to 1885.[1]
Early years
Dealy was born on April 7, 1827, in Rathkeale, County Limerick, Ireland. Little is known about his early life, except that his family emigrated to America when he was young. Dealy began his education in NYC public schools, but in 1843 he started his studies at St. John's Grammar Department; which later became known as the Second Division; today it is Fordham Preparatory School.[2] Three years later, in 1846, he was a part of the first graduating class of the Grammar Department. Later in the year Dealy entered the Society of Jesuits, and became "the first Fordham student to become a Jesuit, although ironically, he had not had any Jesuits as teachers during his Prep days."[2] He finished his noviceship in 1848 and was sent to St. Mary's College in Montreal.[3] He was the first teacher there who spoke English as their first language. Dealy's Jesuit education encouraged his travels abroad, and he spent time in Austria, France, Rome, Montreal, Belgium, and at St. John's.
St. John's College/Fordham University
From 1852 to 1853 Dealy returned to NYC and taught Latin and Greek at the Grammar Department. He founded the Xavier Union during his time spent teaching at Xavier, which is now the Catholic Union.[4] He was the first Fordham student to become president of the college. In 1853 "the rector (probably Larkin) noted that Dealy's 'ingenium,' or intelligence and proficiency in literature, were only 'mediocre,' and his special talent was for teaching the younger boys. In those days, this was not a ringing endorsement."[5] For the next few decades Dealy taught on again and off again at the college level, and while teaching at Xavier he founded the Xavier Union. The club was later renamed the Catholic Club, but it was wildly popular and have one thousand members.[4] Regardless of the rector's initial opinion in 1853, Dealy did become the rector of St. John's College in 1882.
His time at St. John's marked a new era for the college as he implemented several reforms and continued to architecturally expand the college. One of the initial changes Dealy made was to restore the student's print publications, and in 1882 the Monthly began publication.[2] He also supported the baseball team and introduced football to the college, he improved Rose Hill's appearance by establishing Macadam roads and planting trees, he began refurnishing St. John's Hall, and constructing the foundation of the Science Building, today known as Thébaud Hall.[2] Dealy did not just focus on sports and building projects, but also dedicated time to modernizing the curriculum and established a three-year bachelor of science program.[5] "One last innovation of Dealy's was the establishment of the Fordham Cadet Corps. After an earlier administration had made an unsuccessful attempt to initiate a program of military training on campus, Father Dealy succeeded in October 1885. By 1888, 150 students in three companies, including a company of Second Divisioners, or Prep boys, were engaged in this training, the forerunner of Fordham's ROTC."[2]
Dealy helped distance St. John's from the French Jesuit influence, and integrated the college into New York and American culture.
Later years
In 1885 he resigned from his position, and dedicated the remaining years of his life to working in the parishes. He served at a variety of parishes in Boston and Philadelphia before being appointed at St. Lawrence Church in Manhattan. Dealy died in New York City on December 22, 1891, from pneumonia and diabetes, and was buried in the College Cemetery across from the Prep school.[6] In 1931, he was memorialized with the renaming of First Division Hall to Dealy Hall.[2]
References
Fordham. "Fordham online information | About | 175 Years of Service in New York | Fordham's History | Meet the Presidents". www.fordham.edu. Retrieved November 11, 2016.
"Fordham Preparatory School: Rev Patrick F. Dealy, SJ". www.fordhamprep.org. Retrieved November 11, 2016.
O'Hare, Joseph A. (September 1, 1998). Hennessy, Thomas C. (ed.). Fordham: The Early Years. New York: Something More Publications. ISBN 9780962288982.
"Father Patrick Dealy, S.J. (1827-1891), Fordham University". McNamara's Blog. Retrieved November 11, 2016.
Schroth, Raymond A. (March 1, 2002). Fordham: A History and Memoir. Loyola University Press. ISBN 9780829416763.
Johnson, Rossiter; Brown, John Howard, eds. (1906). The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans. Vol. III. Boston: American Biographical Society. Retrieved March 13, 2022 – via Internet Archive.
◆ https://www.fordhamprep.org/alumni/hall-of-honor/inductees/single-post/~board/hall-of-honor/post/dealy
Hall of Honor > Inductees
Rev. Patrick F. Dealy, SJ, Class of 1846
Inducted in 2013
Prep & University President/Rector (1882-1885)
Prep Teacher (1852-1853)
Educator & Administrator, Various Jesuit Institutions
First Alumnus to Enter the Society of Jesus
First Alumnus to Join the Prep Faculty
First Alumnus to Serve as Prep & University President
Rev. Patrick Francis Dealy, SJ was born on April 7, 1827 in Rathkeale, County Limerick, Ireland. Little is known of Paddy’s early life, save that he immigrated to the United States at a very young age with his parents and that he received his earliest education at New York City public schools.
He began at St. John’s College in 1843, a student in the Grammar Department, soon be known as Second Division, or as it is called today, Fordham Preparatory School. In The History of St John’s College — published in 1891 to commemorate Fordham’s Golden Jubilee — some of Dealy’s early Rose Hill recollections are recorded. Of the small Student Library on the second floor of what is today the University's Administration Building he recounts “It was here that I made my first speech in 1843, on the occasion of a reception given by Bishop Hughes to several bishops and other prelates.”
Patrick Dealy completed what today would be the high school portion of his St. John’s education in 1846, making him a member of what is considered the Prep’s first graduating class alongside James Carolin, Patrick Gaynor, Felix Kennedy, James Moran, William Reilly and Alejandro Troncozo. He entered the Society of Jesus on All Hallows Eve of that year at just 17 years of age. He would be the first Fordham student to become a Jesuit, although ironically, he had not had any Jesuits as teachers during his Prep days. Members of the Society would only begin arriving at Rose Hill as Dealy himself was graduating.
Dealy served his novitiate at the newly forming Jesuit community at Fordham and continued his studies at St. Mary’s in Montreal before returning to Bronx. As a scholastic, Dealy spent 1852 and 1853 teaching Greek and Latin on the Prep level.
After his ordination, Father was assigned to Fordham to teach belles-lettres, or literature, on the college level, and would do so, on and off, for decades. Dealy also taught rhetoric at the College of St. Francis Xavier in Manhattan and served at the parish church on West Sixteenth Street. There he founded and served as spiritual director of the Xavier Union, later known as the Catholic Club of New York, an influential lay group of the era. In his day, Fr. Dealy was regarded as the most prominent Jesuit in New York, and, in fact, fellow Hall of Honor inductee and archbishop of New York, John Cardinal McCloskey would ask Dealy to be his confessor.
In 1882, Father Dealy was appointed 13th Rector, or President, of St. John’s College, or in other words, of Fordham Prep and Fordham University. So not only was Patrick Dealy the first Prep student to become a Jesuit, but he was also the first graduate of the school to serve as its president.
Dealy's presidency was dynamic. He is credited with preparing Fordham for the 20th century, moving it away from older French educational traditions and standards to a more modern model as the 1900s approached. This was a time when Catholic colleges throughout the country, many based on the European concept of a single continuous program from the middle school through to masters level, were beginning to feel the pressure to consider the newer American system with its distinctions between high school, college and professional schools. As Taaffe notes in his History of St. John’s College, Dealy’s tenure as president coincided with “the beginning of a new era in the history of Fordham College: a transition from the conservative opinions of the Jesuits of the old French school to the broader and more liberal ideas which had begun to spread as the older generation of fathers were passing away.”
Among the first changes Father Rector made was to restore the student print publications which had not been active at the school in two decades, and so, the first issue of the Fordham College Monthly rolled off the presses in 1882. Baseball was the most widely played sport on campus at the time, but Dealy approved the introduction of American football in response to his sense of the game's growing popularity among the boys. Macadam roads were first put down during his tenure and he did much to improve the overall appearance of Rose Hill's landscape — trees still stand on campus that were planted at Dealy’s behest. Father also began several building projects, including the refurbishment of St. John’s Hall (one of the dorms making up the University’s Queen’s Court complex today) as well as the construction of the Science Building (now known as Thébaud Hall). By the end of Dealy’s presidency, St John’s College could boast an updated curriculum, and an atmosphere in which extracurricular clubs and programs could flourish — not only student journalism and football, but dancing, fencing, boxing and horsemanship.
One last innovation of Dealy’s was the establishment of the Fordham Cadet Corps. After an earlier administration had made an unsuccessful attempt to initiate a program of military training on campus, Father Dealy succeeded in October 1885. By 1888, 150 students in three companies, including a company of Second Divisioners, or Prep boys, were engaged in this training, the forerunner of Fordham’s ROTC.
Completing his presidency in 1885, Fr. Dealy would go on to serve in various parishes, including St. Francis Xavier in Manhattan as well as parishes in Boston and Philadelphia, eventually returning to St. L
