The Dominicans have just celebrated the 150-year jubilee of their ministry on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Fr. John Maria Devaney, O.P., host of the Order’s Word to Life program on Sirius XM, takes me through the history of the Dominicans in NYC (which involves quite a bit of history of the city itself). From Rose Hawthorne to Andy Warhol, it is a fascinating and grace-filled legacy.

Links

Word to Life, Fr. John’s Sirius XM radio show https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/word-to-life/id1416667926

Dominican Friars Province of St. Joseph https://opeast.org/category/word-to-life/

The St. John Paul II Society https://www.stjohnpaul.org/

The Angelic Warfare Confraternity http://www.angelicwarfareconfraternity.org/

Book mentioned by Fr. John, Pioneer Priests and Makeshift Altars: A History of Catholicism in the Thirteen Colonies by Fr. Charles Connor https://amzn.to/2Mk6Iyo

Timestamps

2:17 Father John’s background and call to the priesthood

4:34 Parish missions: the beginnings of Dominican ministry in Manhattan in 1867; Catholic demographics in New York at the time

14:57 The second church of St. Vincent Ferrer that was built after the arrival of more Irish immigrants; Dominican Sisters of St. Mary of the Springs start a school

17:20 The English sisters who served poor immigrants and started the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill

21:07 Aside on Bishop John Hughes, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, and Dominican friars out West

26:38 The first two bishops of New York were Dominican

28:47 The gilded age of New York: opening the Priory of St. Vincent Ferrer and the Mission Church of St. Catherine of Siena

35:07 The story of Rose Hawthorne and her founding of a community of Dominican sisters to care for poor cancer sufferers (the “Hawthorne Dominicans”)

41:54 Rose’s cause for canonization and its importance in combatting assisted suicide; her connection to Sloan-Kettering and Dominican hospital work in NYC more generally

47:48 The vital role of Dominican nuns and sisters

49:44 The current St. Vincent Ferrer church built in Gothic style by the great architect Bertram Goodhue

52:02 The stained-glass Aristotle window; his importance to the Dominicans

56:15 Developments in the neighborhood since the 1950s

57:39 Andy Warhol’s attendance of St. Vincent Ferrer

1:01:28 Catholicism in the public sphere and art circles in the mid-20th century

1:03:42 The Dominican mission of influencing NYC as a cultural hub today; the Dominican contribution to Catholicism in the US is devotional life

1:09:55 The Our Lady of Fatima statue at St. Vincent Ferrer which was sculpted by Fr. McGlynn under the direction of Sister Lucia, the piece of St. John Paul II’s bloodstained cassock from when he was shot

1:14:48 The importance of the rosary to Dominicans and all Catholics

1:18:56 How Fr. Matthew Carroll got the sisters to wear their habits again

1:27:36 This week’s excerpt: Pope St. John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope