James Kent Stone

Background

James was born on November 10, 1840 in Boston, Massachussets, United States, the son of Dr. John Seely Stone and his second wife, Mary Kent (1807 - 1901).

Education

He was prepared for college at E. S. Dixwell's Latin School in Cambridge and entered Harvard in 1856 but did not graduate until 1861. At the conclusion of his freshman year he traveled in Europe for a time while perfecting himself in modern languages, and in 1860-61 studied at the University of Gettingen, where he became a good student, a skilled Alpine climber, and a disciple of German academic methods.

Career

After teaching for a while in Dixwell's Latin School, he enlisted as a private in the Union army, was advanced to a lieutenancy in the Second Massachusetts Volunteers, experienced hard fighting at Antietam, and was retired in January 1863. Appointed an assistant professor of Latin in Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, after holding chairs in Latin and mathematics, became president of the college.

Though the Fays, who were concerned about the Stone children, took steps to have Stone committed to an asylum, his father stood in the way. Meanwhile Stone wrote his polemical volume, The Invitation Heeded (1870), which was compared by friendly critics to Newman's Apologia and went through several editions and into several foreign tongues.

On December 21, 1872, he was ordained a priest by Archbishop John McCloskey and in 1874 became a master of novices. Finally, making a tragic sacrifice which he alone could gauge, he permitted the adoption of his two surviving daughters by Michael J. O'Connor (1820 - 90) and his wife, childless philanthropists of San Rafael, California.

In 1877, he finally joined, taking the name “Fidelis of the Cross. ” (In religious life, name changes symbolized a deeper interior change. ) As Father Fidelis of the Cross, he took his final vows on August 11, 1878, and found a welcome anonymity.

There were brief interims when he labored for his congregation in Paraguay, 1883; attended a general chapter in Rome, 1884; laid the foundation stone of the Passionist Church of San Luis in Valparaiso, Chile, 1886; visited the United States, 1885 and 1889, where he saw his children and preached at the opening of the Catholic University in Washington; and brought missionaries from Rome, 1891, to extend his work. After preaching throughout the United States, 1894-97, even in the Appleton Chapel at Harvard, he was elected consultor to the general and stationed at Rome.

At the end of his term he became provincial consultor in the United States, 1899; master of novices, 1902; and provincial, 1905-08. Again he was sent to South America as provincial.

In 1911 Fidelis was commissioned to inaugurate the Passionist congregation in Brazil, where he erected foundations at S030 Paulo and Curitiba.

In 1914 he was assigned to Mexico but was unable to enter the country under Carranza. Until 1917 he served in Cuba and in negro missionary work in Corpus Christi, Tex. At that time, upon the invitation of D. E. Hudson, C. S. C. , he went to Notre Dame University to write an autobiographic sequel to his early volume under the title, An Awakening and What Followed (1920). Retired at the Passionist monastery in Chicago, he continued to work until shortly before his death in 1921.

Achievements

• James Kent Stone, was sent to establish his Roman Catholic congregation in Argentina, where in his twelve years he founded several monasteries. He also was instrumental in building Holy Cross Church (Buenos Aires), and journeyed forbidding distances over the pampas giving missions. He also started foundations in Chile and Brazil.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Invitation Heeded: Reasons for a Return to Catholic Unity (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Invitation Heeded: Reasons for a Return ...)

  • An awakening : and what followed

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • An Awakening & What Followed

Religion

In January 1863, he studied theology, took orders in the Protestant Episcopal Church. At first, he saw Episcopalianism as a middle way between what he considered Puritan and Roman extremes.

Called to the presidency of Hobart College at Geneva, New York, in 1868, he was happier as a "primitive Catholic" under Bishop Arthur Cleveland Coxe, a high churchman. After commencement, 1869, he resigned his presidency and on December 8, 1869, apparently under no Catholic influences beyond an intimate knowledge of the Tractarian Movement, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church by Father Winand Michael Wigger of Madison, New Jersey.

Personality

Stone was a handsome man well into old age, he stood over six feet tall, with a winning smile and a well modulated voice.

Quotes from others about the person

• Felix Ward, a Passionist historian, writes: “As he stood on the platform beneath the large crucifix, in the Passionist habit, few could resist his appeals. ”
  
  Theodore Roosevelt, impressed with the refined austerity and bearing of Father Fidelis, whom he met in Buenos Aires, said that at his entrance "you heard the clink of the saber".

Connections

On August 26, 1863 he married to Cornelia Fay, daughter of Harrison Fay, by whom he had three daughters. His married life was happy, and his social relations with students and faculty were pleasant; but high church leanings in a low church atmosphere brought a conflict with the local bishop and the school of divinity that led him to resign. The death of his wife on February 15, 1869, brought intense grief and months of solitude.

Father:

John Seely Stone

Mother:

Mary Kent

Wife:

Cornelia Fay

References

• Fidelis of the Cross, James Kent Stone,
• Fidelis of the Cross, James Kent Stone,