Jeremiah Cummings

Background

His father"s death caused his mother to move to New York in his boyhood, and he was there accepted as an ecclesiastical student by Bishop Dubois, who sent him to the College of the Propaganda at Rome to make his theological studies.

Education

Under the administration of Doctor Cummings Saint Stephen"s, which he had completed in March, 1854, became a fashionable and frequented church in New York, its sermons and music making it a local attraction.

Career

Afterwords he returned to New York, where he was assigned as one of the assistants at Saint Patrick"s Cathedral. He there proved himself as linguist, writer, and musician, and a popular preacher and lecturer. In 1848 Bishop Hughes selected him to found Saint Stephen"s parish, New York, and to erect a church.

He continued as its pastor till his death.

He was instrumental in having Brownson change his residence from Boston to New York, took charge of his lecture arrangements, and wrote frequent contributions for the Brownson"s Review. Cummings was one of the leaders in a group of priests and laymen, who were opposed to what they called the "Europeanizing" of the Church in the United States by the foreign-born teachers, to the system of teaching in vogue in the Catholic colleges and seminaries, and who were in favour of conciliating those outside the Church by the use of milder polemics.

In an article on "Vocations to the Priesthood" that Cummings contributed to Brownson"s Review of October, 1860, he severely criticized the management and mode of instruction in Catholic colleges and seminaries which he styled "cheap priest-factories". This aroused a bitter controversy, and brought out one of the noted essays by Archbishop Hughes, his "Reflections on the Catholic Press".

Connections

Friend:

A. Brownson