Hudson was born at Nahant, Massachussets in 1849. His father, Samuel Henry Hudson, was a fisherman by trade. His mother, Mary Hawkes, a native of Ireland, was a strict Catholic. Daniel, the third of ten children, and the first son. He was brought up in the religion of his mother. From his father, who was a voracious reader, he inherited his interest in literature. Never robust, he shunned athletic exercise and passed his recreation with good books.
He attended the grammar and high schools of Nahant and by the time he was fourteen had finished his somewhat telescoped junior education.
He then found employment at the famous Burnham's Book Store in Boston. A year later he was engaged with Lee & Shepherd, the Boston publishers. Here it was that he came to know the famous literary figures of New England. When Hawthorne, Whittier, Emerson, or Longfellow dropped in to see how their books were going, Hudson, who was ordinarily very shy, sought a few words with them and was delighted at their small attentions to him. With Longfellow, particularly, he was on cordial terms. The author of "Evangeline" asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. Without hesitation, the young man answered: "A Catholic priest!"
In 1868 Hudson enrolled in the preparatory department at Holy Cross College, Worcester, Massachussets Among his classmates were a number of students who subsequently became members of the Catholic hierarchy in America. These friendships were later to prove very helpful to Hudson the editor. For two years he remained with the Jesuits at Holy Cross College.
In 1870 he resolved to quit his home and become a Trappist monk. He set out for the distant abbey of New Mellary in Iowa. On the train, however, he met the Rev. Paul Gillen from the University of Notre Dame, Ind. So eloquently did Father Gillen plead the need for priests at Notre Dame that he persuaded Hudson to stop over "for just a visit. The visit lasted sixty-three years. Hudson joined the Congregation of Holy Cross and was ordained a priest on June 4, 1875.
Ten years previous to this event, the founder of Notre Dame, the Rev. Edward Sorin, had inaugurated a weekly magazine, the Ave Maria, dedicated to the interests of the Blessed Virgin. The editorship passed from hand to hand, and the magazine was in danger of death. Immediately after Hudson's ordination, Father Sorin entrusted the Ave Maria to him. It was the only assignment Father Hudson ever received, and one which he retained for fifty-four years.
Father Hudson's acquaintance with men of letters and his knowledge of good literature proved of immediate advantage to the publication. He strove to obtain the patronage of the foremost Catholic authors. Orestes Brownson, Charles Warren Stoddard, Maurice Francis Egan, and Anna Hanson Dorsey contributed brilliantly and frequently. The "Notes and Remarks, " largely written by Hudson himself were rapier-sharp and trenchant. It was he who called the attention of Catholics to the heroic, but unsung, labor of Father Damien among the lepers of Molokai.
Father Hudson was very slight of build. His frailty was further enhanced by his snowy hair and the white Vandyke beard he wore. Abstemious to the point of asceticism, he astounded everyone by the extent of his labors. In 1929 his superiors gave him leave to retire from the editorship. His growing feebleness kept him close to his room. He died at the Community House, Notre Dame, Ind. , and is buried in the cemetery west of the campus.
As an editor he was highly regarded by all who came to know him. So great was his reputation for prudence and sanctity that the ecclesiastical great of America sought his advice and confidence. He left the campus of Notre Dame not more than a dozen times during his fifty-nine years as a priest. It was this devoted concentration on his work that made him so successful an editor.
