Charles Constantine Pise (November 22, 1801 – May 26, 1866) was an American

Roman Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...

and writer. Born in Annapolis,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, on 22 November 1801, "the son of an Italian father and a mother who came from an old Philadelphia family," he was educated at

Georgetown College Georgetown College is a private Christian college in Georgetown, Kentucky. Chartered in 1829, Georgetown was the first Baptist college west of the Appalachian Mountains. The college offers 38 undergraduate degrees and a Master of Arts in educat ...

in Washington, D.C., sent to Rome to continue studies, and entered the

Society of Jesus , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

as a novice. He left the Jesuits when the death of his father caused him to return to the United States and 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 ...

a diocesan priest in 1825. From 1821-22 he attended Mount St. Mary's College and Seminary 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 ...

. During his stay there, his classmates included three future archbishops:

John McCloskey John McCloskey (March 10, 1810 – October 10, 1885) was a senior-ranking American prelate of the Catholic Church. He was the first American born Archbishop of New York from 1864 until his death in 1885, having previously served as Bishop o ...

John Baptist Purcell John Baptist Purcell (February 26, 1800 – July 4, 1883) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Cincinnati from 1833 to his death in 1883, and he was elevated to the rank of archbishop in 1850. He formed the b ...

, and John Hughes.Thorp, Willard. ''Catholic Novelists in Defense of Their Faith, 1829-1865.'' New York: Arno Press, A New York Times Company (1978) A single volume in the complete set ''The American Catholic Tradition''; . He wrote several works in prose and verse, and was a distinguished lecturer and preacher. Among his many literary works, he wrote three Catholic devotional novels and one semi-fictional work, ''Letters to Ada.'' Between 1827-30, he published a five-volume ''History of the Church from Its Establishment to the Present Century'' (although the work stopped at the 16th century). In honor of this effort,

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 ...

made him a knight of the Sacred Palace and Count Palatine, "the first time these honors had come to an American." At this point, he was also made a knight of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

and was granted a Doctor of Divinity degree by examination. During these years, Pise was an assistant at St. Patrick's Church in Washington, DC. Henry Clay arranged for him to be appointed

Chaplain of the Senate The chaplain of the United States Senate opens each session of the United States Senate with a prayer, and provides and coordinates religious programs and pastoral care support for senators, their staffs, and their families. The chaplain is appoi ...

. Pise served as Chaplain from 1832-33. Pise was the first (and, to date, only) Roman Catholic

United States Senate Chaplain The chaplain of the United States Senate opens each session of the United States Senate with a prayer, and provides and coordinates religious programs and pastoral care support for senators, their staffs, and their families. The chaplain is appoi ...

, coming into that office on December 11, 1832. Answering objections to the presence of a Catholic in such a prominent government role, and prefiguring a similar speech by

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

more than 125 years later, on July 4, 1833, Pise made "an eloquent address" before the

Maryland House of Delegates The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the legislature of the State of Maryland. It consists of 141 delegates elected from 47 districts. The House of Delegates Chamber is in the Maryland State House on State Circle in Annapolis, ...

describing in what sense he felt an American Roman Catholic owed 'allegiance' to the

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

. In 1849, he was assigned as

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 ...

at Saint Charles Borromeo Church in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

; he died in Brooklyn on May 26, 1866."Pise, Charles Constantine", in

John Julian John Julian (March 26, 1733) was a mixed-blood pirate who operated in the New World, as the pilot of the ship '' Whydah''. Julian joined pirate Samuel Bellamy, and became the pilot of Bellamy's '' Whydah'' when he was probably only 16 years of a ...

(1907), ''

A Dictionary of Hymnology ''A Dictionary of Hymnology'' (or, more completely, ''A Dictionary of Hymnology: Origin and History of Christian Hymns and Hymnwriters of All Ages and Nations, Together with Biographical and Critical Notices of Their Authors and Translators'') by ...

'', reprint, New York: Dover, Vol. 2, p. 1687. Pise had a career of such prominence that it was unusual he was not made a bishop. One biographer suggests that his friendship with Catholic intellectual Orestes Brownson may have been the problem, at a time when the American Church was turning away from intellectualism as a result of growing Irish domination. Alternatively, the same biographer suggests that it may have been an anti-Irish, anti-Jesuit streak in

Ambrose Maréchal Ambrose Maréchal, P.S.S. (August 28, 1764 – January 29, 1828) was an American Sulpician and prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as the third Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore in Maryland. He dedicated the Basilica of the N ...

, Bishop of Baltimore, which led him to suppress this logical cap to Pise's career.

Bibliography

Partial list: * ''History of the Church from Its Establishment to the Present Century.'' (1827–1830) * ''Father Rowland: a North American Tale.'' Baltimore: Fielding Lucas, Jr. (1829, 1831) Dublin: (1837, 1846) (a response to the anti-Catholic novel ''Father Clement: A Roman Catholic Story'' by Grace Kennedy, published in 1823) * ''The Indian Cottage, a Unitarian Story.'' Baltimore: Fielding Lucas, Jr. (1831)
''The Pleasures of Religion and Other Poems''
(1833) (dedicated to

Washington Irving Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...

) * ''Letters to Ada, From Her Brother-In-Law.'' Harper and Brothers (1834)
''Address Delivered Before the Philodemic Society of Georgetown College, July 25, 1837''
1837 * ''Zenosius; or The Pilgrim Convert.'' New York: Edward Dunigan (1845) (his last novel) * ''Christianity and the Church.'' (1850) * ''First Flow'ret of the Desert Wild'' (1851) ymn_for_Saint_Rose_of_Lima.html" ;"title="Rose_of_Lima.html" ;"title="ymn for Saint Rose of Lima">ymn for Saint Rose of Lima">Rose_of_Lima.html" ;"title="ymn for Saint Rose of Lima">ymn for Saint Rose of Lima * ''Let the Deep Organ Swell the Lay'' (1851) [hymn for Saint Cecilia]. :Both hymns are in the "Appendix" to the 1851 New York edition of Edward Caswall's ''Lyra Catholica'', pp. 422, 427.
''Saint Ignatius and His First Companions''
1894.

Bibliography

References

Further reading