"Dagger John" and Old St. Pat's. CurrentsNY on Nov 20, 2015 A sculpture of New York's First Archbishop, John Hughes, has arrived at Saint Patrick's Old Cathedral just ahead of the blessing of the newly …More
"Dagger John" and Old St. Pat's.
CurrentsNY on Nov 20, 2015 A sculpture of New York's First Archbishop, John Hughes, has arrived at Saint Patrick's Old Cathedral just ahead of the blessing of the newly restored Cathedral. Currents correspondent Michelle Powers was at Old St. Pat's when the statue arrived.
John Joseph Hughes (June 24, 1797 – January 3, 1864) was an Irish-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. He was the fourth Bishop and first Archbishop of the Archdiocese of New York, serving between 1842 and his death in 1864.[1]
A native of Ireland, Hughes was born and raised in the south of County Tyrone. He emigrated to the United States in 1817, and became a priest in 1826 and a bishop 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."[2] 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.[3]
CurrentsNY on Nov 20, 2015 A sculpture of New York's First Archbishop, John Hughes, has arrived at Saint Patrick's Old Cathedral just ahead of the blessing of the newly restored Cathedral. Currents correspondent Michelle Powers was at Old St. Pat's when the statue arrived.
John Joseph Hughes (June 24, 1797 – January 3, 1864) was an Irish-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. He was the fourth Bishop and first Archbishop of the Archdiocese of New York, serving between 1842 and his death in 1864.[1]
A native of Ireland, Hughes was born and raised in the south of County Tyrone. He emigrated to the United States in 1817, and became a priest in 1826 and a bishop 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."[2] 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.[3]
In New York,John Hughes (archbishop of New York) founded St. John's College (now Fordham University) and, under his administration, invited many religious congregations to staff schools in New York, among them members of the Society of Jesus, to whom he entrusted the care of his college, who also established Fordham Prep; the Brothers of the Christian Schools who founded Manhattan College…More
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.[4] Ultimately, Hughes' foresight proved providential, as the rapid urban growth uptown would soon place the new cathedral in the emerging urban center of midtown Manhattan.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hughes_(ar…