Charles Bonaventure McGuire

Background

Charles Bonaventure McGuire was born of a gentle family in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Ireland, the name of which is often given as Maguire.

Education

Charles obtained his rudimentary education from a refugee master in a "hedge-school. " Forced by the penal laws to flee the land, he was educated in a French or Belgian college and at Louvain.

Career

Ordained a Franciscan friar, Charles served in the Low Countries until proscribed by the French Revolutionists. Dragged to the guillotine, he was rescued by a cooper, who was instantly cut to pieces by the infuriated mob, while McGuire made his escape. Thereafter he dwelt in Rome until the arrival of Napoleon's soldiers. Again escaping, he traveled over the Continent making observations and conducting confidential work for his order and, presumably, for the papacy. Commissioned by the king of Bohemia to perform a religious office for a member of the royal family then in Brussels, he was on hand to attend the wounded from Waterloo and to collect battle relics, which he preserved. An adventurous friar, he sought service in the American missions, for which he was warmly recommended to Archbishop Maréchal, by Cardinal Litta. Arriving in Pennsylvania in 1817, he was assigned to the Western missions, to Sportsman's Hall or Latrobe, and in 1820 to the pastorate of the diminutive church of St. Patrick's in Pittsburgh. Aided by Col. James O'Hara, one of the founders of the Pittsburgh glass industry, and the donations of the increasing number of German artisans and Irish laborers, Father McGuire enlarged the church. Catholicism in Western Pennsylvania found a worthy expositor in this simple religious, whom Bishop Fenwick, of Cincinnati, was anxious to have named bishop of a proposed see in Indiana in 1823. Without episcopal ambition, he remained a pastor to his death. Buried in a vault in St. Paul's his remains were later moved to St. Mary's cemetery.

Achievements

• Within a few years, 1829, McGuire laid the corner-stone of St. Paul's Church on Grant Hill, which, when completed by his successor, was one of the largest in America. A year earlier, he was named superior of the Poor Clare nuns, who opened a convent and academy in the town of Allegheny.

Personality

His fluent use of several languages, intimate knowledge of Europe, cosmopolitan character, commanding appearance, ready wit, and urbanity added to the prestige of the uneducated Catholic minority and made him a social favorite in Pittsburgh.