Faith Life at Saint Mary

(The following paragraphs are excerpted from the parish history book, Brick Chapel to Basilica: A History of Virginia’s Oldest Catholic Parish):

Father Anthony Kohlman, S.J. (1808), was an Alsatian who had escaped from the French Revolution. He lived in New York for a time and while there helped to build the first Saint Patrick Cathedral. He garnered much attention in New York newspapers at one point when he refused to reveal the name of a person who had stolen property: the thief had confessed and returned the property, and Father Kohlman kept the seal of the confessional. He was eventually sent to Georgetown by Pope Leo XII to teach dogma, and while there helped to serve at Saint Mary as well. After a number of years in the United States, Father Kohlman returned to Europe and taught theology at the Gregorian College in Rome. Among his students was the future Pope Leo XIII.

Father Enoch Fenwick, S.J. (1810), was from a prominent Maryland family. He was instrumental in building the cathedral in Baltimore and his brother, Benedict Joseph Fenwick, became bishop of Boston. Father Fenwick also served as president of Georgetown College, a position he did not want. According to contemporary testimony, he allowed the prefect of studies, Roger Baxter, to run the college. As a deacon, Baxter served at Saint Mary and later returned as pastor after his ordination.

Father Giovanni Antonio Grassi, S.J. (1811), was an outstanding scholar and scientist. Before coming to America, the Italian Jesuit had been rector of a college in Russian Poland and had studied mathematics, astronomy and English. He, too, served as president of Georgetown College. During his tenure, Father Grassi increased and broadened the college’s enrollment, bringing poor Irish students to the school along with the sons of rich planters and Washington politicians.

Father Stephen Dubuisson, S.J. (1837-1841), was a native of Santo Domingo, Hispaniola. He had an early military career, and was a talented musician with a rich tenor voice; at one time he was a member of the court of Napoleon I. When Napoleon attacked the Papal States, Dubuisson resigned his commission, came to the United States and entered the Society of Jesus.

Father John Aiken, S.J. (1846-1850), was a native of Jonesboro, Tennessee. He became a Catholic, joined the Jesuits in 1837, and was ordained by Archbishop Samuel Eccleston, S.S. His family initially disapproved of his decision to embrace “papal idolatry,” but his faith must have been contagious: Father Aiken had the great and unusual privilege of assisting the conversion of his entire family to Catholicism.

Father James Curley, S.J. (1837), was an Irishman who had emigrated from County Roscommon in 1817. He taught natural philosophy and mathematics at Georgetown – subjects he had taught himself as a child in Ireland. An astronomer, he built Georgetown’s observatory and he served on the college faculty for almost 60 years. 

Father Anthony Rey, S.J. (1841), was a native of Switzerland. During the Mexican War, President James K. Polk requested chaplains for the U.S. troops, one-third of whom were Catholics, and Father Rey was one of the faculty members at Georgetown who volunteered. He won praise for ministering to the troops at the Battle of Monterey (1846). Tragically, while on his way to visit Father John McElory, the other Georgetown chaplain, he was accosted and killed by bandits.

Father Francis Dzierozynski, S.J. (1842), was an outstanding scholar from Poland who had previously taught French, physics, philosophy, mathematics and music in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and in Belarus. In 1820, the Jesuits were expelled from Russia. After escaping by dogsled to Stockholm, Sweden, he was preparing to teach in the emperor’s court in China. When the offer was rescinded, he went to Rome. The Jesuit order then sent Father Dzierozynski to the United States to be the superior general’s representative; he also taught philosophy at Georgetown.

Father John P. Donelan (1846, 1856), a young Irish priest, was named by Archbishop Eccleston to be the founding pastor of a new church, just a few blocks away from the White House. He founded the church of Saint Matthew, which began as a poor, mostly Irish immigrant church and years later became the Archdiocese of Washington’s cathedral. 

Father James Clark, S.J. (1848), graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and was an engineer and mathematician. A convert to Catholicism, he entered the Jesuits in 1844. Father Clark served as president of Holy Cross College in Massachusetts and was one of the founders of Gonzaga College High School in Washington, DC. He taught mathematics and chemistry at Georgetown and served as vice-president and treasurer of the college.

Father Joseph P. O’Hagan, S.J. (1862), served as a chaplain with the Union Army of the Potomac during the Civil War. More than 1,500 soldiers, mostly from Irish Catholic New York regiments, attended Sunday Mass on the battlefields. After the war, Father O’Hagan returned to Georgetown to teach. He later became president of Holy Cross College.