CHARLES DOMINIC FFRENCH

Background

Charles Dominic Ffrench son of a Church of Ireland prelate and cousin of Lord Ffrench, was born in Galway, Ireland.

Education

On his mother’s death, the boy was reared by a religious aunt and tutored by a liberal-minded father and a scholarly parson.

Following servants to chapel, he joined the Catholic Church along with a brother, Edmund, who became bishop of Galway (died, 1852). The boys were assailed on all sides; Trinity College was closed to them; in accordance with the penal laws, they were cut off from their inheritance; as sons of a Protestant they could not study for the priesthood in state-aided Maynooth seminary.

In despair, they turned to the Dominican priory, where they continued their classical training in preparation for the College of Corpo Santo at Lisbon, where Charles was ordained, December 21, 1799.

Career

Two years later, on his way to Ireland, his ship was captured by Spaniards and he was taken to Galicia as a prisoner. Soon released, he made his way via Portugal and England to Ireland where he ministered for eight years. Among his converts was an American merchant who urged his enlistment in the American missions.

Armed with letters from his provincial and Archbishop Troy, he went to Lisbon and thence to Canada where he arrived in September 1812. Appointed vicar in Quebec, he made such an appeal to Protestants, that under Anglican pressure his bishop sent him to St. John, New Brunswick (1813), where he built a chapel from which he attended Indian stations over an immense area.

He learned the native dialect and was unusually successful until exposure from falling through an ice-hole into a bayou impaired his robust constitution. In 1817, he joined the diocese of New York and attended missions through New Jersey and New York state.

In the course of his duties, he said the first mass at Claremont, New Hampshire, and took part in the conversion of the Rev. Daniel Barber. Racial troubles with certain trustees of St. Peter’s Church, New York, as well as charges concerning loans on New Brunswick lands where he had hoped to establish a Dominican priory, caused him considerable annoyance.

He set forth for St. John in 1822, but his ship was wrecked. Largely because of his skill and courage, the long boats were lowered and landed at Kingston, R. without even the loss of the steerage passengers whom the captain would have abandoned. Continuing his journey, he obtained evidence for A Short Memoir in Vindication of the Character of Rev. Charles Ffrench (c. 1826). Apparently this refutation ended the charges of his detractors.

At intervals he attended Irish camps on canals; in 1827 he took over Dover, New Hamshire, as a station and within a year erected St. Aloysius’s Church (Truth Teller, New York, July 26, 1828).

Assigned to Portland, Maine, Father Ffrench, despite nativist threats, built St. Dominic’s Church and incidentally converted J. M. Young, later Catholic bishop of Erie, Pennsylvania. With noteworthy zeal, he gathered together congregations at Quincy and Newburyport, Massachusetts (Catholic Telegraph, Sept. 7, 1833).

In 1839, without leave of absence, he went to Rome in hopes of bringing Dominicans to Portland. On his return, he served as pastor of Greece, New York, where he constructed a small church; but with the accession of Bishop Fitzpatrick, he was recalled to the Boston diocese and given charge of Lawrence, Massachusetts (1846), where he built the church and school of the Immaculate Conception and attended mass-stations at Methuen, Andover, and Haverhill.

A powerful man who carried his 350 pounds without being unwieldy, he finally surrendered to death after a few weeks of inactivity. Of him Bishop Fitzpatrick, who was not uncritical, confided to his notes that he was zealous and regular, buoyant and amicable, and no bearer of ill will even to opponents, whose faults he presented in a favorable light with an effort “as amusing as it was edifying. ”

Achievements

• In 1826, he joined Bishop Fenwick at Boston and was assigned to Eastport, Maine, where he built a church and established an Indian mission at Pleasant Point.

Works

• book

  • To the members of the Roman Catholic communion of the city of New-York

Religion

Assigned to Portland, Me. , Father Ffrench, despite nativist threats, built St. Dominic’s Church and incidentally converted J. M. Young, later Catholic bishop of Erie, Pa.

Personality

Of him Bishop Fitzpatrick, who was not uncritical, confided to his notes that he was zealous and regular, buoyant and amicable, and no bearer of ill will even to opponents, whose faults he presented in a favorable light with an effort “as amusing as it was edifying. ”

Connections

Brother:

Edmund

Following servants to chapel, he joined the Catholic Church along with a brother, Edmund, who became bishop of Galway (died, 1852).