John Joseph Hughes (June 24, 1797 – January 3, 1864) was a
prelate
A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pre ...
of the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
in the United States. He was the fourth Bishop and first Archbishop of the
Archdiocese of New York
The Archdiocese of New York ( la, Archidiœcesis Neo-Eboracensis) is an ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church ( particularly the Roman Catholic or Latin Church) located in the State of New York. It encompasses the boroug ...
, serving between 1842 and his death in 1864.
In 1841, he founded St. John's College, which would later become
Fordham University.
A native of Ireland, Hughes was born and raised in the south of
County Tyrone
County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an administrative division for local government but retai ...
. He emigrated to the United States in 1817, and became a
priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...
in 1826 and a
bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...
in 1838. A figure of national prominence, he exercised great moral and social influence, and presided over a period of explosive growth for Catholicism in New York. He was regarded as "the best known, if not exactly the best loved, Catholic bishop in the country."
He became known as "Dagger John," both for his following the Catholic practice wherein a bishop precedes his signature with a cross, as well as for his aggressive personality.
Early life
Hughes was born in the
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
of Annaloghan, near
Augher
Augher (from ga, Eochair meaning "edge/border") is a small village in south County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It lies just 6 miles to the County Monaghan Border and is 16 miles south of Dungannon. It is situated in the historic barony of Clog ...
, in
County Tyrone
County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an administrative division for local government but retai ...
, part of the
Province of Ulster
Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...
in the north of Ireland. He was the third of seven children of Patrick and Margaret (née McKenna) Hughes who were from Errigal Truagh, County Monaghan .
In reference to the anti-Catholic
penal laws of Ireland, he later observed that, prior to his
baptism
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...
, he had lived the first five days of his life on terms of "social and civil equality with the most favored subjects of the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
."
He and his family suffered religious persecution in their native land; his late sister was denied a Catholic burial conducted by a priest, and Hughes himself was nearly attacked by a group of
Orangemen when he was about 15.
He was sent with his elder brothers to a
day school
A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children and adolescents are given instructions during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compa ...
in the nearby village of Augher, and afterwards attended a
grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...
in
Aughnacloy.
Patrick Hughes, a poor but respectable
tenant farmer
A tenant farmer is a person (farmer or farmworker) who resides on land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management, ...
, was forced to withdraw John from school and sent him to work one of his farms. However, being disinclined to farm life, he was placed as an apprentice to Roger Toland, the gardener at
Favour Royal Manor, to study
horticulture
Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...
. His family emigrated to the United States in 1816 and settled in
Chambersburg,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. Hughes joined them there the following year.
He made several unsuccessful applications to
Mount St. Mary's College
Mount Saint Mary's University, Los Angeles (known as Mount St. Mary's College until January 2015) is a private, Catholic university primarily for women, in Los Angeles, California. Women make up ninety percent of the student body.
It was found ...
in
Emmitsburg, Maryland
Emmitsburg is a town in Frederick County, Maryland, Frederick County, Maryland, United States, south of the Mason-Dixon line separating Maryland from Pennsylvania. Founded in 1785, Emmitsburg is the home of Mount St. Mary's University. The town ...
, where he was eventually hired by its
Rector
Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to:
Style or title
*Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations
*Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
, the
Abbé John Dubois
John Dubois (french: Jean Dubois) served as the third bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York from 1826 until his death in 1842. He was the first Bishop of New York who was not Irish-born and, as of 2021, remains the only Bishop or Archb ...
,
S.S., as a gardener.
During this time he befriended Mother
Elizabeth Ann Seton
Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton (August 28, 1774 – January 4, 1821) was a Catholic religious sister in the United States and an educator, known as a founder of the country's parochial school system. After her death, she became the first person bo ...
, who was favorably impressed by Hughes and persuaded Dubois to reconsider his admission.
Hughes was subsequently admitted as a regular student of Mount St. Mary's in September 1820.
In addition to his studies, he continued to supervise the garden, and served as a tutor in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and mathematics as well as
prefect
Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area.
A prefect's ...
over the other students.
At that time, the president of Mount St. Mary's was the brilliant
Simon Bruté
Simon William Gabriel Bruté de Rémur (March 20, 1779 – June 26, 1839) was a French missionary in the United States and the first bishop of the Diocese of Vincennes, Indiana. President John Quincy Adams called Bruté "the most learned man of h ...
, who also lectured on Sacred Scripture and taught Theology and Moral Philosophy. (Bruté would later become the first bishop of the
Diocese of Vincennes, Indiana.) Hughes would on numerous occasions consult with his former teacher for advice long after he had left Emmitsburg.
Priesthood
As a
seminarian
A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...
, Hughes resolved to serve his home
Diocese of Philadelphia, then governed by Bishop
Henry Conwell
Henry Conwell ( – April 22, 1842) was an Irish-born Catholic bishop in the United States. He became a priest in 1776 and served in that capacity in Ireland for more than four decades. After the Pope declined to appoint him Archbishop of Arm ...
.
The bishop, while performing a
canonical visitation of his diocese, met Hughes at his parents' home in Chambersburg and invited him to accompany him on the remainder of his visitation.
On October 15, 1826, Hughes was
ordained
Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform ...
to the
priesthood by Bishop Conwell at
Old St. Joseph's Church in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
.
Hughes' first assignment was as a
curate at
St. Augustine's Church in Philadelphia, where he assisted its
pastor
A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...
,
the Rev. Father Michael Hurley,
O.E.S.A., by celebrating
Mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...
, hearing
confessions, preaching sermons, and other duties in the
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...
. Later that year he was sent to serve as a
missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...
in
Bedford
Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...
, where he secured the conversions of several
Protestants.
In January 1827, he was recalled to Philadelphia and named pastor of St. Joseph's Church.
He labored afterwards at St. Mary's Church, whose trustees were in open revolt against the bishop, and were subdued by Hughes only when he built St. John the Evangelist Church in 1832, then considered one of the finest in the country. Previous to this, in 1829, he founded St. John's Orphan Asylum.
About this time Hughes became engaged in a public controversy over Catholic beliefs with the Rev. John A. Breckinridge, a distinguished
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
clergyman and son of the
former Attorney General in the Jefferson Administration. Several debates ensued between the two concerning whether Catholicism was compatible with American republicanism and liberty. Though it was predicted that the Irish immigrant would be outclassed by his better educated Protestant adversary, Hughes acquitted himself very well against his opponent's attacks on his religion. The debates resulted in the pugnacious Hughes' emergence as a vigorous defender of Catholicism in America. His name was mentioned for the vacant see of
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
and as a
coadjutor for Philadelphia.
Episcopacy
Coadjutor bishop
Hughes was chosen by
Pope Gregory XVI
Pope Gregory XVI ( la, Gregorius XVI; it, Gregorio XVI; born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari; 18 September 1765 – 1 June 1846) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1831 to his death in 1 June 1846. He ...
as the
coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of New York on August 7, 1837. He was
consecrated bishop at
St. Patrick's Old Cathedral on January 7, 1838, with the title of the
titular see
A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbis ...
of
Basilinopolis
Basilinopolis or Basilinoupolis (Greek: Βασιλινούπολις) was a town in Bithynia Prima (civil Diocese of Pontus), which obtained the rank of a city under, or perhaps shortly before, Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate, whose mother was ...
, by the Bishop of New York, John Dubois, S.S., his former Rector.
Although wishing Hughes no ill, many of the priests in the diocese had favored the popular
Rev John Power, Vicar-General. Power had been overlooked for the position in 1826 when Dubois won the appointment as bishop. The clergy demonstrated their disappointment by not attending the consecration.
Trusteeism
One challenge Hughes took on upon arriving in New York was the dispute between the trustees of various parishes in the city, who held the control of these institutions. This practice was known as
trusteeism
Trusteeism and the trustee system are practices and institutions within certain parishes of the Catholic Church in the United States, under which laypersons participate in the administration of Ecclesiastical Property. When laypersons are among ...
, and the bishop challenged both the practicality and the legitimacy of it. Hughes drew upon his experience with this situation in Philadelphia and was able to get a referendum passed by the Catholics of the city in 1841 supporting the authority of the bishop.
Education
Hughes also campaigned actively on behalf of Irish immigrants, and attempted to secure state support for
parochial schools; the effort failed. He protested against the standard use of the
King James Bible in public schools by the Public School Society, a private organization which operated the schools of New York City. He claimed that it was an attack on Catholic constitutional rights of double taxation, because Catholics would need to pay taxes for public school and also pay for the parochial school to send their children, to avoid having their children indoctrinated by teachers following the Protestant teachings footnoted in that translation of the Bible. However, there are no footnotes in the King James Bible; nonetheless the translation itself favored a Protestant doctrine over a Catholic one, in addition to being a translation from the
Textus Receptus
''Textus Receptus'' (Latin: "received text") refers to all printed editions of the Greek New Testament from Erasmus's ''Novum Instrumentum omne'' (1516) to the 1633 Elzevir edition. It was the most commonly used text type for Protestant deno ...
rather than the Catholic
Latin Vulgate
The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible.
The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels us ...
. When he failed to secure state support, he founded an independent Catholic school system in New York, as did other Catholic centers. The system Hughes founded extended to his creation in 1841 of the first Catholic college in the
Northeast United States
The Northeastern United States, also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast, is a geographic region of the United States. It is located on the Atlantic coast of North America, with Canada to its north, the South ...
, St. John's College, now
Fordham University. The resulting parochial school systems which became an integral part of the Catholic Church's structure two decades after Hughes died, at the
Third Plenary Council of Baltimore (1884). It mandated that all parishes nationwide have a school and that all Catholic children be sent to those schools.
Bishop of New York
Hughes was appointed
Apostolic Administrator
An Apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic adm ...
of the diocese the following year, due to Dubois' failing health. As coadjutor, he automatically succeeded Dubois upon the bishop's death on December 20, 1842.
[ He took over a diocese which covered the entire State of New York and northern ]New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, having only some 40 priests to serve a Catholic population estimated to be about 200,000 at the time.
In 1844 anti-Catholic riots instigated by Nativist agitators threatened to spread to New York from Philadelphia, where two churches had been burned and twelve people had died. Hughes put armed guards at Catholic churches and, after learning a Nativist rally was scheduled to take place in New York, famously told the Nativist sympathizing mayor that "if a single Catholic Church were burned in New York, the city would become a second Moscow" – a reference to the Fire of Moscow. City leaders took him at his word, and the anti-Catholic faction was not allowed to conduct its rally.
Hughes founded the Ultramontane
Ultramontanism is a clerical political conception within the Catholic Church that places strong emphasis on the prerogatives and powers of the Pope. It contrasts with Gallicanism, the belief that popular civil authority—often represented by th ...
newspaper the ''New York Freeman
The ''New York Freeman'' (1849–1918) was an American Catholic weekly newspaper in New York City.
History
The ''Weekly Register and Catholic Diary'' was started on October 5, 1833, by Fathers Schneller and Levins. It lasted three years, and was ...
'' to express his ideas. In 1850 he delivered an address entitled "The Decline of Protestantism and Its Causes," in which he announced as the ambition of Catholicism "to convert all Pagan nations, and all Protestant nations. . . . Our mission sto convert the world –including the inhabitants of the United States – the people of the cities, and the people of the country, . . . the Legislatures, the Senate, the Cabinet, the President, and all!"
Hughes held a "strong commitment to the cause of Irish freedom" but also felt that immigrants, particularly his fellow Irish immigrants, "should demonstrate their unswerving loyalty to their adopted land."
Archbishop
Hughes became an archbishop on July 19, 1850, when the diocese was elevated to the status of archdiocese by Pope Pius IX. As archbishop, Hughes became the metropolitan for the Catholic bishops serving all the dioceses established in the entire Northeastern United States. He convened the first meeting of the Ecclesiastical Province
An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian Churches with traditional hierarchical structure, including Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity. In general, an ecclesiastical province consists of seve ...
of New York in September 1854. After this he traveled to Rome, where he was present at the proclamation of the Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception.
It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...
as a dogma
Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Isla ...
of the Catholic Church by Pope Pius. Hughes served as President Lincoln's semiofficial envoy to the Vatican and to France in later 1861 and early 1862. Lincoln also sought Hughes' advice on the appointment of hospital chaplains.[
In an address in March 1852, Hughes lionized what he referred to as the "spirit of the ]constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When these princ ...
," expressed hope that the "parties" of the republic would be completely "penetrated" by that spirit, and stated that the founders' achievements in the realm of religious freedom were "original" in history and that the constitution's "negation of all power to legislate" on "rights of conscience" made American law on that topic superior to that of other countries which had secured these rights "by some positive statute." In the same address, Hughes also expressed sentiments of religious toleration, stating that "we are indebted" to the "liberality of Protestantism," in light of the fact that the framers of the Constitution "were almost, if not altogether, exclusively Protestants." He averred that the strong leadership of Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
and the variety of opposing Protestant views were likely more influential to the framers' stance on religious freedom than was Protestantism itself.
Hughes also stated that "the great men who framed the Constitution saw, with keen and delicate perception, that the right to tolerate implied the equal right to refuse toleration, and on behalf of the United States, as a civil government, they denied all right to legislate in the premises, one way or the other." He affirmed the role of Catholic soldiers in American wars and declared, "I think I shall be safe in saying that there has not been one important campaign or engagement in which Catholics have not bivouacked, fought, and fallen by the side of Protestants, in maintaining the rights and honor of their common country." Hughes also said that "It is... out of place, and altogether untrue, to assert or assume that this is a Protestant country or a Catholic country. It is neither. It is a land of religious freedom and equality; and I hope that, in this respect, it shall remain just what it now is to the latest posterity" and also that "Catholics, as such, are by no means strangers and foreigners in this land.... The Catholics have been here from the earliest dawn of the morning."
Slavery and John Mitchel
While Hughes did not endorse slavery, he suggested that the conditions of the "starving laborers" in the Northern states were often worse than that of those held in bondage in the South. He believed the Abolitionist
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The British ...
movement veered towards ideological excess. In 1842 Hughes had cautioned his flock against signing O'Connell's abolitionist petition ("An Address of the People of Ireland to their Countrymen and Countrywomen in America") which he regarded as unnecessarily provocative.
Against what he saw as the Protestant republican agenda promoted by the Young Irelander
Young Ireland ( ga, Éire Óg, ) was a political and cultural movement in the 1840s committed to an all-Ireland struggle for independence and democratic reform. Grouped around the Dublin weekly ''The Nation'', it took issue with the compromise ...
exile John Mitchel
John Mitchel ( ga, Seán Mistéal; 3 November 1815 – 20 March 1875) was an Irish nationalist activist, author, and political journalist. In the Famine years of the 1840s he was a leading writer for ''The Nation'' newspaper produced by the ...
and his journal the ''Citizen'', Hughes, nonetheless, took a stand on the issue. Mitchel was uncompromising in defense of slavery by denying it was a crime "or even a peccadillo to hold slaves, to buy slaves, to keep slaves to their work by flogging or other needful correction." He himself might wish for "a good plantation well-stocked with healthy negroes in Alabama." At Mitchel saw it, Hughes copied the abolition press "to cast an Alabama plantation" in his "teeth."
Death
Hughes served as archbishop until his death. He was originally buried in the old St. Patrick's Cathedral, but his remains were exhumed in 1882 and reinterred in the crypt under the altar of the new St. Patrick's Cathedral which he had undertaken to build.
Character
Monsignor Thomas Shelley in his study on Hughes described him as a very "complex character," with one side that was "impetuous and authoritarian, a poor administrator and worse financial manager, indifferent to the non-Irish members of his flock, and prone to invent reality when it suited the purposes of his rhetoric." But Shelley finds this did not detract from the effectiveness of Hughes, who established 61 new parishes along with many other institutions.
Historian Daniel Walker Howe
Daniel Walker Howe (born January 10, 1937) is an American historian who specializes in the early national period of U.S. history, with a particular interest in its intellectual and religious dimensions. He was Rhodes Professor of American Histor ...
writes that Hughes "labored to bring a largely working-class Irish community into a meaningful relationship with Catholic Christianity" while at the same time working "to conciliate middle-class Catholics and Protestant well-wishers whose financial support he needed for his amazingly ambitious program of building." Howe continues, "Although no theologian, John Hughes ranks high for political judgment and in the significance of his accomplishments among nineteenth century American statesmen, civil as well as ecclesiastical. He successfully coped with fierce party competition in New York, bitter battles over the public school system, revolutions in Europe, the rise of nativism across the United States, and soaring rates of immigration after the Great Famine of Ireland. He encouraged his people to hard work, personal discipline, and upward social mobility." "Crucially, he combined his staunch American patriotism with staunch devotion to a nineteenth-century papacy deeply suspicious of all liberalism, especially American." Hughes "succeeded in fostering a strong Irish American identity, one centered on the Catholic faith rather than on the secular radicalism of the Irish nationalists who competed with him for community leadership." This achievement, however, came "at the cost of losing to the Irish-American community the Irish Protestant immigrants."[Daniel Walker Howe, ''What Hath God Wrought?'', Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 199-200.]
According to his later successor, Patrick Cardinal Hayes, named archbishop of New York in 1919, Archbishop Hughes was severe of manner, and kindly of heart, but was not aggressive until assailed.
Legacy
In New York, Hughes founded St. John's College (now Fordham University) and, under his administration, invited many religious congregations
A religious congregation is a type of religious institute in the Catholic Church. They are legally distinguished from religious orders – the other major type of religious institute – in that members take simple vows, whereas members of religio ...
to staff and administrate schools in New York, among them members of the Society of Jesus
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
(to whom he entrusted the care of St. John's), who also established Fordham Preparatory School
Fordham Preparatory School (also known as Fordham Prep) is an American private, Jesuit, boys' college-preparatory school located on the Rose Hill campus of Fordham University in the Bronx, New York City.
From its founding in 1841 until 1970, t ...
and Xavier High School
A multitude of schools and universities have been named after St. Francis Xavier, a Spanish Roman Catholic saint and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. This page lists notable educational institutions named after St. Xavier, arranged by country a ...
; the Brothers of the Christian Schools
french: Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes
, image = Signum Fidei.jpg
, image_size = 175px
, caption =
, abbreviation = FSC
, nickname = Lasallians
, named_after =
, formation ...
who founded Manhattan College; and he established as an autonomous congregation the Sisters of Charity of New York The Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul of New York, most often known as the Sisters of Charity of New York, is a religious congregation of sisters in the Catholic Church whose primary missions are education and nursing and who are dedicated ...
, in which his sister Angela was a member, who founded the Academy of Mount St. Vincent (now College of Mount Saint Vincent
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...
). All of these institutions remain active to this day.
"Hughes Hall," the first purpose-built home of Fordham Prep, was named for the archbishop in 1935. The building currently houses Fordham University's Gabelli School of Business
The Gabelli School of Business is the undergraduate and graduate business school of Fordham University, a private Jesuit research university in New York City, New York.
Fordham University's involvement in business started early in the 20th ...
on its Rose Hill campus. There is also a dining space on the Rose Hill campus named "Dagger John's" in honor of Hughes. In addition, each year, Fordham recognizes a graduating senior who has demonstrated achievement in the study of philosophy with an award named in honor of Hughes.
To the dismay of many in New York's Protestant upper class, Hughes foresaw the uptown expansion of the city and began construction of the current St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue between 50th and 51st Street, laying its cornerstone on August 15, 1858. It was not completed until after his death. At the time, due to its remote location in a still-rural part of Manhattan, the new cathedral was initially dubbed "Hughes' Folly" by the press for many years. Ultimately, Hughes's foresight proved providential, as the rapid urban growth uptown would soon place the new cathedral in the emerging urban center of midtown Manhattan.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, John
1797 births
1864 deaths
People from County Tyrone
Irish emigrants to the United States (before 1923)
Mount St. Mary's University alumni
19th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the United States
Roman Catholic archbishops of New York
Fordham University faculty
Founders of Catholic religious communities
Burials at St. Patrick's Old Cathedral
Burials at St. Patrick's Cathedral (Manhattan)
University and college founders