The Province of Saint Thomas of Villanova, One Hundred and Fifty Years On
By. Fr. Michael DiGregorio, O.S.A.
Three quarters of a century after Augustinian Fathers Matthew Carr and John Rosseter arrived in Philadelphia with the clear intention to establish a branch of the Augustinians in the United States, efforts to achieve that goal remained incomplete.
Though they labored tirelessly on this soil for the remainder of their lives, saw the creation of a thriving parish, served the local Church faithfully, and assisted the country’s lone bishop in a variety of offices and responsibilities, Fathers Carr and Rosseter lived to see only one recruit, Michael Hurley, follow in their footsteps and enter the Order. Fortunately, other foreign-born friars arrived to assist them, and after Carr’s death, additional American-born candidates gradually embraced Augustinian life, making possible the extension of the community to new ministries and to places beyond the original foundation in Philadelphia.
As the number of friars and their houses slowly increased throughout those early decades, conditions eventually reached a level of growth which allowed for the creation of an independent province of the Order according to Augustinian constitutional norms. Accordingly, in the decree of foundation dated August 25, 1874, Prior General Giovanni Belluomini called for the first provincial chapter in America to be held. There were by then 56 members of the American mission, consisting of 30 friar-priests, 13 brothers, 12 student clerics and 1 oblate. Of these, fourteen friars who were the official members of the Chapter by virtue of the office or title or degree which they held, gathered at Villanova on December 15, 1874 to celebrate the new province’s birth, elect the first prior provincial, distribute responsibilities, and discuss the province’s needs and direction.
We look back over 150 years of history, not to the beginning of the Augustinian experiment in America – which is considerably older thanks to friars like Matthew Carr, Michael Hurley and their companions – but to the official foundation of the province under the patronage of Saint Thomas of Villanova, and the election of its first prior provincial in the person of Father Thomas Galberry, O.S.A. A century and a half of religious life has contributed significantly since to the Church in the United States in the hundreds of friars who have embraced Augustine’s vision of common life and have served the People of God in a wide variety of ministries and settings. The events of 1874 signaled not the end of a process but the attainment of a critical stage of development – a true coming of age – which made possible the necessary autonomy within the Order for the American Augustinians to advance further still in both the number of their members and the diversity of their works.
Father Thomas Galberry, O.S.A.: First Provincial in the United States
By. Fr. Michael DiGregorio, O.S.A.
Thomas Galberry, O.S.A. was the 33-year-old pastor of Saint Augustine Parish in Troy, New York, when he received word on November 30, 1866, from Prior General Paolo Micallef that he had been appointed commissary general (a position we now call major superior) of the Augustinians in the United States. He would maintain this position for the next eight years while holding concurrently the office of either pastor or president of Villanova University. These combined responsibilities weighed significantly on Thomas as he held in balance the administration of the specific local position entrusted to him together with the care and supervision of friars and their ministries in various places. When the decree was granted on August 25, 1874 for the American friars to form an independent province of the Order, Thomas resigned as commissary provincial, happy to yield leadership to the friar who would be elected at the first provincial chapter the following December. He had served his confreres well in each of the positions he had held and looked forward to being relieved of the responsibility of government.
On December 16, 1874, the day following the chapter’s opening, in an unmistakable sign of approval which the friars had for him in his role as commissary and confidence in his ability to lead them still, Thomas was elected to the office of prior provincial with twelve of the fourteen votes cast – one of the dissenters obviously being Thomas himself.
One of the first initiatives which Thomas undertook in his new role was to visit the friars in the eleven communities of the province then located in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. While engaged in this work, Thomas became aware of a report that began circulating in the press that he had been named bishop of Hartford, Connecticut. At first, he dismissed the news as mistaken, but when he eventually discovered its accuracy, he wrote to Rome asking to be excused. The conversation back and forth between Thomas and Rome continued on for well over a year until a letter arrived in January 1876 with the message, “His Holiness, after weighing all matters, orders you to assume the entrusted duty and to be consecrated Bishop and go to the See as soon as possible.” Thomas was consecrated fourth bishop of Hartford on March 19, 1876, the Feast of Saint Joseph and the Third Sunday of Lent. Less than two weeks previously, his responsibility to the Province of Saint Thomas of Villanova had ended with the appointment of another friar to succeed him as temporary vicar, but his attachment – personal and spiritual – to the Order did not end.
Thomas served as bishop of Hartford for little more than two-and-a-half years, having won the affection and admiration of the people, priests and religious of his diocese, as well as that of many citizens of other faiths as well. He died suddenly and unexpectedly as he was traveling back to Villanova for a few days of rest among his confreres and friends. The date was October 10, 1878. He was forty-five years old. Brief had been his attachment to Hartford, briefer still his role as first prior provincial of the American Augustinians. Long lasting, however, his memory and the legacy he left to both.
Vatican City, July 5 – Pope Francis has appointed Father Rocco Ronzani, an Augustinian priest and esteemed patristics professor from Rome, as the new prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Archive. This archive, which was formerly known as the Vatican Secret Archive, preserves Church documents dating back to the eighth century.
