[CHAPTER I.]

Early Persecutions on Manhattan Island.—Missionaries from New York.—The Freedom of the Country and of the Church Established.—The First Missionaries in New Jersey.

"History repeats itself" is an old adage and one which has stood the test ever since the sage first uttered it. The first chapter of the history of the Catholic Church, take it as a whole, or in whatever country or nation you like, is written in blood, the precious blood of the martyrs who died for their God and their faith. The second chapter is one of adversity, of persecutions; one in which the property and worldly comfort of the devout are frequently sacrificed to the bigotry of the infidel or the heretic. Thus it goes on from chapter to chapter, from generation to generation, but the hand of God is with his followers and it raises them from the depths of tribulation from which they looked imploringly but confidingly to the God who had created them, to the God who had made himself known to them through the Holy Catholic Church.

The first Catholic missionary who came to Manhattan Island and who traveled through the adjacent country was the Rev. Isaac Jogues, a Jesuit. In 1642 he was taken prisoner by the Indians, who tore off his finger-nails and cut off the thumb of his right hand; in 1646 he was killed by the Indians. To-day there is scarcely a hill in that part of the country from which the cross of a Catholic Church cannot be seen.

In 1658 a French Catholic was fined twelve guilders in a place now within the city limits of New York because he refused to contribute to the support of a Protestant clergyman, and even in 1778 Father De La Mote, an Augustinian friar, was locked up in prison because he celebrated mass in New York. To-day the triumph of Catholicism in New York is marked by hundreds of churches and scores of converts.

It is a peculiar coincidence that the freedom of this country was established in the same year with the freedom of the Catholic Church, and that consequently this, the semi-centennial of the establishment of St. John's Church in Paterson, is also the centennial of the enfranchisement of the Catholic Church in this country. By the New York State Constitution of 1777 Catholics coming from foreign countries were excluded from citizenship, but Congress overruled the action of the New York Convention. "With this attempt," says the late Archbishop Bayley in his History of the Catholic Church in the Island of New York, "to keep up the intolerance of the English colonial government, all legislation opposed to the free exercise of the Catholic religion ceased; and such Catholics as were in the City of New York at the time of its evacuation by the British troops, in 1783, began to assemble for the open celebration of the officers of religion."

In 1786 St. Peter's Church—the first Catholic Church in the Diocese of New York—was erected on the corner of Barclay and Church streets. In 1809 the corner stone was laid for St. Patrick's Cathedral and at the consecration in 1815 by Right Rev. Bishop Cheverus, of Boston, the Mayor and Aldermen of New York City and a number of the State officials attended divine service in the new cathedral.

In the Catholic Almanac for 1822 was published the following list of the clergy in the diocese:

Rev. Dr. John Connolly, St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York.
Rev. Michael O'Gorman,""
Rev. Charles French,St. Peter's, "
Rev. John Power, ""
Rev. Mr. Bulger, Paterson.
Rev. Michael Carroll, Albany and vicinity.
Rev. John Faruan, Utica and vicinity.
Rev. Patrick Kelly, Auburn, Rochester, and other districts in the
westernpart of the State.
Rev. Phillip Larissy, attends regularly at Staten Island, and
different othercongregations along the Hudson River.