Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 6^-THE BULLETIN, April 28, 1962
U. S. Devotions Top Factor
in Canonization Of Blessed
Martin, Priest-Author Says
(N C W C NEWS SERVICE)
Public devotion to Blessed
Martin de Porres in the United
States contributed largely to the
decision for the canonization of
the Peruvian mulatto scheduled
May 6 in St. Peter’s basilica
in Rome.
Father Leo C Gainor, OP,
author of “Life of Blessed Mar
tin,” said the devotion was
spread by the Blessed Martin
Society in Chicago throughout
this country and to foreign na
tions.
The Dominican Brother was
declared blessed in 1837,
Father Gainor said, but the
devotion to him was slow in
getting started in the United
States. The first public recog
nition of Blessed Martin occur
red in the wake of the War
Between, the States in 1866 when
Father Felix Barotti came to
Washington, D C., from Rome
to serve as a missioned among
Negroes in the nation’s capi
tal.
Father Barotti established a
small chapel on Seventh Street
in the southwest section of the
city and named it in honor of
Blessed Martin. The chapel
served Negroes of the city until
1874 when a church was built
The church was located on Fif
teenth Street, Northwest, a half
dozen blocks from the White
House. Since a church should
not be dedicated to a blessed
it was named for St Augustine,
Father Gainor said. St. Augus
tine’s still is a thriving parish
in the downtown sector of the
city.
Father Gainor said after St.
Augustine’s was established,
interest in Blessed Martin
waned for some years but was
revived byMsgr. John E Burke,
who died in 1925 at the age of
73. He is remembered as a
great apostle among the nation’s
Negroes.
Msgr. Burke first learned
of Blessed Martin from the Do
minicans while a student for the
priesthood in Rome, Father
Gainor said. He was ordained
about 1878 on the feast of St.
Dominic, August 4, in Rome.
He espoused the cause of Bles
sed Martin and on his return
to this country became the first
volunteer pastor of the first
church for Negroes in New York
City in 1883. The church was
dedicated to St. Benedict the
Moore, Father Gainor related.
There Msgr. Burke opened
the first home (St. Benedict’s)
for destitute Negro children
in 1886. The home was staffed
by Dominican nuns but now is
absorbed into New York Catho
lic Charities. When the new St.
Benedict the Moor church was
opened on West 53rd Street in
New York one of the stained
glass windows was dedicated to
Blessed Martin in memory of
Msgr. Burke.
The Monsignor had the first
medals of Blessed Martin cast
and distributed in this country,
Father Gainor said. He also
composed a prayer to Blessed
Martin, which was approved and
indulgenced by Pope Leo XIII
in 1904, and still is in popular
use today, Father Gainor re
lated. Msgr. Burke later work
ed in Washington and among
Negroes throughout the South.
He wrote magazine articles and
ministered to Negroes until his
death, always with great devo
tion to Blessed Martin.
The year after Msgr. Burke’s
death, the cause for canoni
zation of Blessed Martin was
reopened formally in Rome.
This gave an impetus to devo
tion to Blessed Martin in the
United States. The devotion was
of a private nature until 1935
when the first novena in Blessed
Martin’s honor was offered by
Dominicans.
Father Gainor said: “This
public devotion came about in
an unusual manner.” He re
called that Father Thomas Mc-
Glynn, O P , a talented sculp
tor and writer and son of Frank
McGlynn, the actor famous for
his portrayals of Abraham Lin
coln, became interested in mis-
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DEVOTION TO BLESSED MARTIN DE PORRES
by Catholics in the U. S. has been hailed as one of the
primary factors in the coming (May 6) canonization of
the Peruvian mulatto. Father Thomas McGlynn, O.P.
(above), famed sculptor and writer, executed a statue
of Blessed Martin in 1930 and later conceived the idea
for a novena to Blessed Martin for the students at the
Dominican House of Studies in River Forest, Ill. in
1935. The Dominican priest’s statue and novena gave
worldwide recognition and impetus to the devotion to
Blessed Martin.—(NC Photos)
sion work among Negroes while
a student at the Dominican
House of Studies in Washington.
Father McGlynn executed a
statue of Blessed Martin and
wrote a stage play dealing with
racial relations. While con
tinuing studies in Rome after
his ordination, Father McGlynn
conceived the idea of a novena
to Blessed Martin for students
at the Dominican House of
Studies in River Forest, Ill.
The idea of the novena stem
med from a talk which Father
McGlynn had with Eugenio Car
dinal Pacelli, who later became
Pope Pius XII, Father Gainor
related. The cardinal visited
Father McGlynn’s studio and
they spoke of devotion to Bles
sed Martin. The Cardinal re
quested prayers by Dominicans
for his brother, Francis
Pacelli, a lawyer, who was ill,
and urged that the prayers seek
the intercession of Blessed
Martin. The Cardinal predicted
at that time that a great de
votion to Blessed Martin would
arise, Father Gainor said.
Father Gainor said the first
group novena to Blessed Mar
tin among Dominicans in the
U. S. resulted. He said it was
a “mail order novena.” He de
tailed that Father McGlynn
wrote to Father Norbert
Georges, OP., a professor at
the River Forest house of
studies, urging him to interest
the students in the novena.
Father Georges, who has be
come a Blessed Martin devotee
by translating Stanislaus Fum-
et’s “Meet Blessed Martin”
from the French, encouraged
the students to write to relatives
and friends to join in the novena
to Blessed Martin for the re
covery of the Cardinal’s broth
er. Thus came the first re
corded novena to Blessed Mar
tin in the U S.
The Students mimeographed
copies o f Father McGlynn’s
letter, mailed them to parents,
relatives and friends. The no
vena began on January 28, 1935
and concluded on February 5.
’ The novena was apparently
a failure in its purpose for
Francis Pacelli died,” Father
Gainor related. “But in another
way the novena was a wonder
ful success for it gave a world
wide impetus to the devotion
to Blessed Martin. There were
no public services for this no
vena. It was conducted in the
cloisters of the Dominicans, but
the cloisters did not keep the
letters out.
‘ ‘The news of this novena and
favors granted to relatives of
the students spread like wild
fire,” Father Gainor continued.
‘ ’Soon letters began to pour into
the students about favors re
ceived through intercession to
Blessed Martin. The movement
was under way. Newspapers
were quick to pick up reports
of a new colored ‘saint’ and
of the white devotion to him —
a new devotion launched in quite
an unexpected way.”
At this time Father Edward L
Hughes, OP, joined the move
ment. Father Hughes then was
editor of the Torch magazine
published in New York. He filled
the magazine with stories about
Blessed Martin’s life. Thepub-
lication became a clearing
house in recording favors re
ceived, Father Gainor said, and
Father Hughes made the Torch
the dispenser of Blessed Mar
tin literature and information.
He founded the Blessed Martin
Guild and organized the first
public novena to the mulatto
Brother.
The first public novena to
Blessed Martin took place in
the Blue Chapel of the Domini
can Sisters of the Perpetual
Rosary in Union City, N. J.,
Father Gainor said. It open
ed on October 28, 1935 and
concluded on November 5, Bles
sed Martin’s feast day. The
Novena attracted much attention
among Religious and the laity
and began a long series of de
votions to Blessed Martin in
the chapel.
Father Gainor said the chapel
became associated with favors
granted through the inter
cession of Blessed Martin. Do
minican tertiaries ' made the
first public pilgrimage to the
chapel on March 29, 1936 and
took part in devotions to Bless
ed Martin. The pilgrims came
from the New York-New Jersey
area.
Father Georges became offi
cial promoter of Blessed Mar
tin’s cause in the United States.
He also traveled extensively to
other countries, particularly
Peru, to advance devotion to
Blessed Martin.
When Father Georges was
transferred to Chicago in 1941,
he established the devotions to
Blessed Martin in the Domini
can parish of St. Pius where
they have been conducted for
more than 20 years on Monday
nights. He also organized the
Blessed Martin Society which
now has thousands of members.
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Nun-Educator Warns Library
Convention Delegates
Against Restricting Range
(By John G Deedy, Jr.
N C W C. News Service)
PITTSBURGH -- A renowned
nun-poetess cautioned dele
gates at the 38th annual Catho
lic Library Association con
vention here against imposing
restrictions on range of
interest.
‘ Although we identify ours
as a Christian civilization, we
do not and cannot, even in our
libraries, limit our areas of
thinking and serving to the
Christian era, ” said Sister
M Madeleva, president emeri
tus of St. Mary’s College, Notre
Dame, Ind.
In a keynote address, the
Holy Cross nun declared that
’ ‘although th e calendars of the
world are the Julian calendars,
and our history bears the mark
‘Anno Domini, the year of Our
Lord,’ our intellectual activi
ties include all times, all cul
tures, all prevailing forms of
existence.”
She made the observation in
exploring the possibilities of
intellectual unity in the world.
Intellectual unity is possible
under the fewest and most basic
principles, Sister Madeleva
commented, adding that these
must be “mutuallyacceptable.”
‘The natural law is such a
principle,” Sister Madeleva
stated, “possibly the only one.
The refusal of two great peo
ple and their satellites to ac
cept this right of man, a pos
sessor of his own home, the
creator and protector of his
family, a worshiper of his God,
makes both a free world and in
tellectual unity in it impossible.
“But for the Christian world
and the non-Christian peoples
believing in the integrity of
Other countries established
devotions to Blessed Martin.
They were spread in the Carib
bean area by Irish Dominicans;
in Ireland, where there is a
Blessed Martin Center in Dub
lin; in England, where Father
McGlynn recently executed a
statue of Blessed Martin for
St. Dominic’s church in Lon
don, and in Peru, where Bless
ed Martin was declared patron
of all social justice in 1939
on the 300th anniversary of his
death in Lima.
“Today Blessed Martin is
known extensively throughout
the world, especially in the
United States,” Father Gainor
said. ‘ It didn’t take his clients
long to realize Blessed Martin
has a gift basket for the sick,
infirm and the needy: that Mar
tin does not recognize nor ob
serve any color lines.
“In St. Peter’s Square at the
canonization ceremonies in the
hugh throng expected there will
be three Dominicans from the
United States -- Fathers Mc
Glynn, Hughes and Georges, who
labored so effectively to pro
mote the event and to hear the
solemn words of Pope John
XXIII pronounce Martin de
Porres a saint of the Church,”
Father Gainor said.
the individual and his rights,
unity is not only a possibility
but a bond,” she continued.
‘ This bond can be exercised
eminently through our worlds
of books, through our careful
theological, philosophical, eco
nomic studies, of world unity,
honest thinking and unselfish
action.”
Sister Madeleva told the li
brarians that they could ‘ ‘no
longer dare to be tongue-tied
in our own English speech.”
“We must learn and read
and speak at least two other
modern languages,” she com
mented. “I say we must and
I mean exactly that. It may
be a bit late for us to begin
but we are training young li
brarians. Facility in language
is imperative in this training.
Beyond all diplomatic tech
niques and summit conferences
a speaking knowledge of other
languages provides the key to
international understanding and
a free world.
* ‘Every librarian should
oblige himself to read some
thing in two modern languages
beyond English every week,”
Sister Madeleva said. “Let it
be a newspaper, a magazine, a
book of essays or short arti
cles. Better not try poetry or
novels.
"And doTt let us worry about
the words we do not know. We
all read innumerable articles in
English on science, industry,
medicine, filled with words we
do not know, ideas that we do
not perfectly understand. But
our limitations do not prevent
our reading of what we can
understand. ”
Sister Madeleva concluded
with a salute to “four great
Catholic libraries” founded
within the past five years: Pius
XII Library, St. Louis Univer
sity; Marillac College Library,
Normandy, Mo.; the library at
the College of St. Catherine,
St. Paul, Minn., and “the li
brary of heroic dimensions”
under construction at Notre
Dame University.
“With such vitality in the
world of Catholic libraries we
can anticipate the best that
books can provide for
intellectual unity in a free
world,” Sister Madeleva pre
dicted.
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