Isaac Thomas Hecker
Isaac Thomas Hecker was an influential figure in 19th-century America, born on December 18, 1819, in New York City to Prussian immigrant parents. Initially drawn to Transcendentalism, Hecker associated with prominent thinkers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, even spending time at Brook Farm. His spiritual journey led him to enter the Roman Catholic Church in 1844, and he was ordained as a Redemptorist priest in England five years later. However, after facing expulsion from the Redemptorist order, he received papal dispensation from his vows and founded the Missionary Priests of St. Paul the Apostle, also known as the Paulist Fathers, in 1858, which focused on missionary work. By 1940, this organization had evolved into a papal institute with outreach in multiple countries. Hecker was also a prolific writer, authoring several works including "Questions of the Soul" and "The Church and the Age," and he played a key role in establishing the Catholic Publication Society, launching magazines like "Catholic World" and "Young Catholic." His contributions to the Catholic Church and American religious life remain significant, and he passed away in New York City on December 22, 1888.
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Isaac Thomas Hecker
Priest
- Born: December 18, 1819
- Birthplace: New York, New York
- Died: December 22, 1888
- Place of death: New York, New York
Biography
Isaac Thomas Hecker was born in New York City on December 18, 1819. The son of Prussian immigrants, Hecker discovered that he wasn’t interested in Puritanism, and instead he gravitated toward the Transcendentalist movement. He became friends with leading Transcendentalist thinkers of the day such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, and he stayed at Brook Farm for a short time. He was educated in Europe, entered the Roman Catholic Church in 1844, and was ordained a Redemptorist priest in England in 1849.
Hecker conducted missions in America, and although he was expelled from the Redemptorist order for soliciting advice from Rome without official authorization, Pope Pius IX dispensed him of his vows. In 1858, he founded the Missionary Priests of St. Paul the Apostle (also known as the Paulist Fathers), a center for missionary work in New York. By 1940, the Paulist Fathers had become a papal institute with missionary centers in the United States, Canada, Italy, and South Africa.
Hecker was the author of Questions of the Soul (1852), Aspirations of Nature (1857), and The Church and the Age (1887), and he founded and was the director of the Catholic Publication Society. He is credited with starting two Paulist magazines, Catholic World in 1865 and Young Catholic in 1870. Hecker died in New York City on December 22, 1888.