The Nativists and St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral

Nativist violence against St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral and the counteractions of Archbishop John Hughes

The Catholic Cathedral of St. Patrick (now St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral), located on Mott Street between Prince and Houston, was dedicated in May 1815. This was a momentous occasion for New York Catholics, who had not seen an expansion of the Church in New York since the first parish of St, Peter’s was built in 1785 (Dolan, 11).

There were about 15,000 Catholics in New York by the time St. Patrick’s opened in 1815 (Dolan, 11). Many of these people were Irish and German immigrants. Jay P. Dolan states:

Historians generally recognize the importance of the church in the immigrant community, but the church the immigrant knew was not an abstract entity; it was localized and . . . occupied space in the neighborhood; people could see it, touch it, and enter inside it to pray or simply to get out of the cold. The church building was the religious center of the neighborhood. (Dolan, 4)

Thus the Cathedral was special to Irish immigrants from the very beginning. According to Shelley Mendelsohn, it was the first place of worship in the United States that was dedicated to Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland who organized the Irish church in the fifth century. Furthermore, funds used to help build the Cathedral were donated in part by many Irish immigrants who wanted to help despite their poverty. These immigrants “lived in squalor, crowded into rotting structures and wretched tenements, eking out a miserable living and suffering from disease and extreme poverty” (Mendelsohn, 10). St. Patrick’s provided a sense of community and comfort for a group of pious people who were forced to flee from their homeland.

In the decades leading to the Civil War, there were frequent fights and riots on the streets of New York City between Protestants and Catholics. In 1836, amidst this growing prejudice and mob violence against Catholics, the Ancient Order of the Hibernians was founded by Irish Catholic men in New York and Philadelphia in order to protect the Church (aoh.com).

The walls of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, which protected the church from violent nativists

In 1842, John Hughes was appointed Bishop of St. Patrick’s. As the new bishop, he had to worry about how to preside over a steadily growing diocese and how to protect his parishioners and other Catholics from the hostility of the nativists (Mendelsohn, 11). In May 1844, three days of rioting, sparked by a conflict between Catholics and Protestants, in Philadelphia led to thirteen deaths, the destruction of two Catholic churches, and significant damage to Catholic property. To help the city’s authorities restore order, Bishop Kenrick left Philadelphia for three days and temporarily halted the celebration of Mass in Catholic churches throughout the city. Bishop Hughes disagreed with Kenrick’s reaction to the violence, stating, “They should have defended their churches since the authorities could not or would not do it for them” (Shelley, 126).

Following the incident in Philadelphia, there were plans by New York nativist leaders to organize a large demonstration in City Hall Park. Bishop Hughes responded quickly and decisively. First, he urged Catholics not to attend the rally, scheduled for May 9, so that no accusation could later be made against them for provoking or participating in riots. Second, he went asked Mayor Robert H. Morris to ban the ban the demonstration. Shelley writes:

“Are you afraid,” asked the mayor, “that some of your churches may be burned?” “No, sir,” replied Hughes, “but I am afraid that some of yours will be burned” (Shelley, 126).

The nativist demonstration was canceled. Though the exact reason behind the cancellation is unknown, Bishop Hughes publicly took credit for preventing potential violence (Shelley, 127).

Another incident in 1844 exhibits Bishop Hughes’ proactive role in protecting the Catholic community in New York, and this time in particular, St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral. That year, the Native American party successfully elected James Harper, one of the publishers of Awful Disclosures, as mayor. A group of these nativists, ready to incite mayhem, marched through Irish-Catholic sections of the city carrying “No Popery” banners and shouting insults. Remembering Hughes’ requests to remain calm, the Irish left the paraders alone. When the public learned that the group planned to attack and burn down St. Patrick’s, the cathedral’s graveyard filled quickly with armed men ready to defend their church. Their foe changed their plans and did not attack. These brave men are memorialized in a plaque on the outside of the church, which reads:

Erected to the memory of the members of the ancient Order of the Hibernians of the City of New York . . . who in April, 1844, at the call of the Most Reverend John Hughes . . . rallied to the defense of the Cathedral when it was threatened with destruction by the forces of bigotry and intolerance. (Carthy, 86)

Bishop Hughes powerful message and forceful decisions against the natives show his ability to unite New York’s Catholics as well as his fierce defense of its community and cathedral.

Works Cited

Carthy, Mother Mary Peter. Old St. Patrick’s New York’s First Cathedral. New York: The United States Catholic Historical Society, 1947.

Dolan, Jay P. The Immigrant Church: New York’s Irish and German Catholics 1815-1865. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983.

Meehan, Jack. “Legacy in Stained Glass: The Hibernian Windows.” Ancient Order of Hibernians. May 2008. Web. 9 May 2009. http://www.aoh.com/pages/archives/hibernian_windows.html

Mendelsohn, Joyce. New York’s First Cathedral: St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral. New York: St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral. [pamphlet]

Shelley, Thomas J. The Archdiocese of New York: The Bicentennial History 1808-2008. France: Editions du Signe, 2007.

The Nativists in New York

Anti-Catholic propaganda and the beginning of nativist violence against Catholics in New York City

New York City was the center of the Protestant Crusade. Two important figures from this movement were Protestant clergymen George Bourne and William Craig Brownlee. The latter leader started a weekly newspaper called The Protestant. First released on January 2, 1830, the purpose of this newspaper was to expose the evils of Catholicism. Throughout the next few years, The Protestant published exaggerated reports - for example, on the suspicious activities of the Jesuits and the nuns arriving from Canada - in order to scare its readers.

In January 1832, Bourne, Brownlee, and other leaders founded the New York Protestant Association in order to actively stop the spread of Popery. They hosted public meetings and sponsored debates with Catholic priests, attracting riotous crowds.

An anti-Catholic book published in New York in 1836 gathered a large following. This book, The Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery of Montreal was supposedly the true account of a nun named Maria Monk. According to the book, Maria had escaped from a Montreal convent, where young women were imprisoned in the basement to be sexually abused by priests. Their illegitimate children were killed and buried in the cellar. In truth, however, Maria Monk was a mentally disturbed woman who was forced to stay in a Montreal institution. Her account was actually a fabrication by J.J. Slocum, a Protestant minister in New York City, published by the Harper Brothers under the false company Howe & Bates. Before this came to light, the people behind the Maria Monk phenomenon further continued to play into American Protestants’ fears, shock, and revulsion of Catholics; they scheduled Maria for a road show, in which she would appear in a religious habit, holding her child who was fathered by a priest. Though an investigation of the Hotel Dieu convent later exposed Mara’s story as a lie, the book remained popular, making Awful Disclosures one of the most influential Nativist works prior to the Civil War.

New York Catholics had to deal with more than just lies and debates. St. Mary’s Church on Sheriff Street was burned down on November 9, 1831. Pillaged, then set on fire in three separate places, the culprits even stuffed the bell to make it impossible for parishioners to summon help (Shelley, 100-102).

Works Cited

Shelley, Thomas J. The Archdiocese of New York: The Bicentennial History 1808-2008. France: Editions du Signe, 2007.

The Nativists

The history of these anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant, native-born Americans is intertwined with the violent history of the Archdiocese of New York, and particularly, St, Patrick’s Old Cathedral.

Fervent anti-Catholicism colored political and religious life in the thirteen American colonies. Surprisingly, this intolerance of Catholics waned prior to the American Revolution, probably for a number of reasons.

The reasons for this sudden change include:

1. support for the patriot cause by American Catholics, as well as assistance from Catholic nations such as France and Spain.

2. the Enlightenment, the philosophical, scientific, and cultural movement that had a mostly negative impact on religious practice, but which also spread a spirit of toleration.

3. the small size of the Catholic population, which comforted English Protestants. Catholics were only 1% of the total population of 2,500,000.

4. both lay and spiritual leaders of the American Catholic community who were deemed non-threatening. These prominent lay figures were deeply integrated into American society, despite their Catholicism, such as the Charles Carroll, a rich planter from Maryland, and Dominick Lynch, a successful businessman from New York.

Despite the progress made regarding the toleration of Catholics during the American Revolution, anti-Catholic feelings returned in the 1830s. This correlated with the rise in the number of Catholics in America due to the increasing immigration of the Irish and the Germans, especially to New York.

The influx of Catholic immigrants enraged native-born Americans, who felt threatened for both economic and religious reasons. First, native-born Americans did not want to compete for employment with immigrants, who were more likely to work for lower wages. Second, American Protestants were meanwhile experiencing the Second Great Awakening. Evangelical churches such as the Baptists and Methodists led this widespread religious revival. These denominations held negative views of Catholicism - the Roman Catholic Church was the Whore of Babylon and the Pope was the anti-Christ. Protestants disagreed with the theology of these morally questionable Catholic immigrants, who seemed to be invading their cities.

Because poorer Protestant Americans were more desperate for jobs and less educated, they were more likely to believe anti-immigrant propaganda and join the Nativist movement. Throughout the 1830s until the Civil War, nativists rose in several waves to defend American ideals and morals. This began with a passionate group of preachers who attempted to spark public anger and disgust against Catholics by connecting the typically undisclosed Catholic traditions of the confessional and the convent to sexual misconduct (Shelley, 99).

Works Cited

Shelley, Thomas J. The Archdiocese of New York: The Bicentennial History 1808-2008. France: Editions du Signe, 2007.