| Reverend Jeremiah O’Callaghan
moved to Burlington on this day in 1830. He was Vermont’s
first resident Catholic priest.
Traveling priests from Boston or Canada visited Catholic families
in Burlington and along the Canadian border, but there was no church
or regular services.
In 1830, St. Mary’s Church was founded in Burlington, which
today is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. The Burlington
area had about a thousand Catholics, and nearly half were French
speaking.
O’Callaghan remained in Burlington until 1854, when he moved
to Montpelier and became the capital city’s first resident
priest.
At
right, historic image courtesy Vermont
Historical Society, and a Vermont Book Of Days photograph
|
The
Cathedral Of The Immaculate Conception in Burlington,
on the site of what used to be St. Mary's, flanked on the left
by an historic
image of a treatise written by Jeremiah O'Callaghan.
|
