Early Persecutions on Manhattan Island.—Missionaries from New York.—The Freedom of the Country and of the Church Established.—The First Missionaries in New Jersey.

"History repeats itself" is an old adage and one which has stood the test ever since the sage first uttered it. The first chapter of the history of the Catholic Church, take it as a whole, or in whatever country or nation you like, is written in blood, the precious blood of the martyrs who died for their God and their faith. The second chapter is one of adversity, of persecutions; one in which the property and worldly comfort of the devout are frequently sacrificed to the bigotry of the infidel or the heretic. Thus it goes on from chapter to chapter, from generation to generation, but the hand of God is with his followers and it raises them from the depths of tribulation from which they looked imploringly but confidingly to the God who had created them, to the God who had made himself known to them through the Holy Catholic Church.

The first Catholic missionary who came to Manhattan Island and who traveled through the adjacent country was the Rev. Isaac Jogues, a Jesuit. In 1642 he was taken prisoner by the Indians, who tore off his finger-nails and cut off the thumb of his right hand; in 1646 he was killed by the Indians. To-day there is scarcely a hill in that part of the country from which the cross of a Catholic Church cannot be seen.

In 1658 a French Catholic was fined twelve guilders in a place now within the city limits of New York because he refused to contribute to the support of a Protestant clergyman, and even in 1778 Father De La Mote, an Augustinian friar, was locked up in prison because he celebrated mass in New York. To-day the triumph of Catholicism in New York is marked by hundreds of churches and scores of converts.

It is a peculiar coincidence that the freedom of this country was established in the same year with the freedom of the Catholic Church, and that consequently this, the semi-centennial of the establishment of St. John's Church in Paterson, is also the centennial of the enfranchisement of the Catholic Church in this country. By the New York State Constitution of 1777 Catholics coming from foreign countries were excluded from citizenship, but Congress overruled the action of the New York Convention. "With this attempt," says the late Archbishop Bayley in his History of the Catholic Church in the Island of New York, "to keep up the intolerance of the English colonial government, all legislation opposed to the free exercise of the Catholic religion ceased; and such Catholics as were in the City of New York at the time of its evacuation by the British troops, in 1783, began to assemble for the open celebration of the officers of religion."

In 1786 St. Peter's Church—the first Catholic Church in the Diocese of New York—was erected on the corner of Barclay and Church streets. In 1809 the corner stone was laid for St. Patrick's Cathedral and at the consecration in 1815 by Right Rev. Bishop Cheverus, of Boston, the Mayor and Aldermen of New York City and a number of the State officials attended divine service in the new cathedral.

In the Catholic Almanac for 1822 was published the following list of the clergy in the diocese:

Such is the brief outline of the early history of the Catholic Church in this part of the country and it will thus be seen that shortly after the Catholics were first permitted to worship God in their own way Catholicism took root in New Jersey.

The following concerning the first Catholic missionaries who visited New Jersey is taken from an article which appeared in the Catholic World in 1875:

"About this period (1757) there were a few Jesuit priests in Maryland and Pennsylvania; and the earliest account that we have of Catholics in New Jersey is in 1744, when we read that Father Theodore Schneider, a distinguished German Jesuit who had professed philosophy and theology in Europe, and been rector of a university, coming to the American provinces, visited New Jersey and held church at Iron Furnaces there. This good missionary was a native of Bavaria. He founded the mission at Goshenhoppen, now in Berks County, Pennsylvania, about forty-five miles from Philadelphia, and ministered to German Catholics, their descendants and others. Having some skill in medicine, he used to cure the body as well as the soul; and travelling about on foot or on horseback under the name of Doctor Schneider (leaving to the Sinelfunguses to discover whether he were of medicine or of divinity), he had access to places where he would not otherwise have gone without personal danger; but sometimes his real character was found out, and he was several times raced and shot at in New Jersey. He used to carry about with him on his missionary excursions into this province a manuscript copy of the Roman Missal, carefully written out in his own handwriting and bound by himself. His poverty or the difficulty of procuring printed Catholic liturgical books from Europe, or, we are inclined to think, the danger of discovery should such an one with its unmistakable marks of 'Popery' about it (which he probably dispensed with in his manuscript), fall into the hands of heretics, must have led him to this labor of patience and zeal. Father Schneider, who may be reckoned the first missionary in New Jersey, died on the eleventh of July, 1764. Another Jesuit used to visit the province occasionally after 1762, owing to the growing infirmities of Father Schneider, and there still exist records of baptisms performed by him here. This was the Rev. Robert Harding, a native of England, who arrived in America in 1732. He died at Philadelphia on the 1st of September, 1772. But the priest principally connected with the early missions in New Jersey is the Rev. Ferdinand Farmer. He was born in South Germany in 1720, and, having entered the Society of Jesus, was sent to Maryland in 1752. His real name was Steenmeyer, but on coming to this country he changed it into one more easily pronounced by English-speaking people. He was learned and zealous, and for many years performed priestly duties in New Jersey at several places in the northern part, and seems to have been the first to visit this colony regularly. In his baptismal register the following among other places are named, together with the dates of his ministrations: a station called Geiger's, in 1759; Charlottenburgh, in 1769; Morris County, Long Pond, and Mount Hope, in 1776; Sussex County, Ringwood and Hunterdon County, in 1785. The chief congregation at this period was at a place called Macoupin (now in Passaic County), about fifteen miles from the present City of Paterson. It was settled in the middle of the last century by Germans, who were brought over to labor in the iron mines and works in this part of the provinces."

"After the evacuation of New York by the British in 1783, there was a prospect of collecting the few scattered Catholics on Manhattan Island into a congregation, and the venerable Father Farmer used to go twice a year to visit the faithful there, across the northern part of this State, stopping on his way to officiate at Macoupin. On the 22nd of September, 1785, the Rev. John Carroll, who had been appointed by the Pope Superior of the Church in the United States and empowered to give confirmation, set out on a tour to administer this sacrament at Philadelphia, New York and (as he writes to a friend) 'in the upper counties of the Jerseys and Pennsylvania, where our worthy German brethren had formed congregations.' In this year Rev. Mr. Carroll computed the number of Catholics under his charge at sixteen thousand in Maryland, seven thousand in Pennsylvania and two thousand scattered about the other States. The number of priests was nineteen in Maryland and five in Pennsylvania."