In honor of the 250 anniversary of the founding of the United States, the ACHS is displaying a new exhibit at the society house featuring “Revolutionary Catholics.” The exhibit highlights Catholic contributions to the revolutionary struggle and the founding of a new nation, as well as the way that the revolutionary experience shaped the development of the Catholic Church in the United States.

Exhibit Highlights

Catholics in the English Colonies

The Catholic presence in British North America can be traced to 1634, with the arrival of two ships, the Ark and the Dove, at St. Clement Island on the Potomac River in Maryland. Among the passengers were two Jesuit priests, who had been invited to minister to the Catholic community.

Fighting for Religious Freedom

For Catholics, the fight for independence was motivated not just by political aspirations, but religious ones as well. They saw the revolution as an opportunity to secure the promise of religious freedom that had initially drawn many to the colonies.

Military Valor

Many Catholics served in prominent military leadership roles in the revolution. Among them were:

• Commodore John Barry – Commander of the USS Lexington, and the first to capture a British ship. He is regarded as the “Father of the American Navy.”
• Tadeusz Kosciuszko – Polish artillery commander who became a colonel in the Continental Army. His knowledge in topography and strategy contributed to the American victory at Saratoga.
• Stephen Moylan – Close advisor to General Washington. He was known as Washington’s right-hand man. He is also credited as the first person to employ the phrase “United States of America.”

Catholic Founding Fathers

Three Catholics were signers of the most significant documents establishing the Unites States. Charles Carroll, a Maryland representative to the Second Continental Congress was the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence. Delgates to the Constitutional Convention Thomas Fitzsimons and Daniel Carroll were signers of the Constitution.

Bishop John Carroll and Maryland Tradition

John Carroll (1735-1815) was named the first Catholic bishop in the United States, overseeing the Diocese of Baltimore, which encompassed the entire country at the time. As bishop, he worked to promote a vision of “American” Catholicism that accepted religious pluralism and the separation of church and state.

The Revolutionary Spirit within the Church

In the wake of the revolution, Catholics in the United States embraced not only independence, but also the nation’s new republican principals. But were those principles compatible with Catholicism?

A Diverse Catholic Flock

Even though Catholics were a tiny fraction of the American population in the revolutionary era, they were a remarkably diverse group — a mix of established families and recent arrivals, “Americans” and foreigners, elites and commoners, rural and urban dwellers, free and enslaved.

Catholicism and the Age of Revolutions

The American Revolution produced a spark that reshaped the world, giving rise to an age of revolution that reverberated across the Atlantic and throughout the Americas. It would also shake the Catholic Church and force it to reckon with the new revolutionary spirit of the age.

Celebration and Commemoration

Over the generations, Catholics continued to honor the memory of the revolution and remind their fellow Americans of Catholic contribution to the struggle for independence.

We sincerely hope you enjoy this exhibit, prepared by students in Seton Hall University’s Public History practicum, the next time you attend one of our monthly lectures at the ACHS society house.