Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
Charles Carroll of Carrollton was the wealthiest man in the American colonies at the time of the Revolution. He was the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence, and after a long and distinguished career in public service, he was the last of the signers to die. Despite laws outlawing Catholics from holding public office in the Maryland colony he was elected as a delegate to the Continental Congress. He later served as a U.S. Senator from Maryland, and helped to write the Constitution for the new State of Maryland. He served on the board of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and laid the cornerstone for its construction.
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Fr. Leo Heinrichs, OFM, Proto-Martyr of Colorado
Father Leo Heinrichs was a Franciscan who fled persecution in Germany only to be shot dead by an Italian anarchist in Denver in 1908. He first came to New York and New Jersey where he ministered for 16 years. He was much loved by the homeless and those in need, as he did great work providing for their needs, and giving them spiritual comfort. But in 1907 he was transferred to St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Denver, the parish established for the large German-speaking population in that city. Just five months later he swapped Sunday Mass times with another priest so that he could make it to a morning meeting. In the congregation that day was Giuseppe Alia, a recent immigrant from Italy who hated the Catholic Church and especially priests. He shot Father Leo at point blank range during Communion, but was tackled before he could leave the church. He was tried, convicted, and hanged without repentance, despite the efforts of the Franciscans to minister to him and to plead for clemency. Father Leo's cause for canonization opened, but it stalled in 1940.
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The Pilgrimage Sanctuary of Chimayo
In 1810 a wooden cross was miraculously discovered in the hillside of the village of Chimayo in northern New Mexico. The area had been known by Pueblo Indians as a place where miraculous healings took place, and after the cross was found a chapel was built because pilgrims started coming to pray before the miraculous cross and seek healing from the "holy dirt." So many miraculous healings have been attributed to this location, and so many pilgrims come every year — it is the largest pilgrimage site in the U.S. — that Chimayo is known by some as the Lourdes of America.
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Roger Maris
Roger Maris was a lifelong Catholic. He was born in Minnesota and grew up in North Dakota. He was an excellent athlete, and after breaking into the majors with the Cleveland Indians in 1957, he eventually made it to the New York Yankees, where he broke Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record in 1961. Ruth’s record was one of the most hallowed in baseball, so anyone breaking it was a big deal. But Yankee fans wanted it to be the face of the franchise through the 1950s, the great Mickey Mantle, who broke it. Maris had only been a Yankee for one full season, so he was considered an interloper, usurping what was rightly Mantle’s record. Add to that, the commissioner of baseball, Ford Frick, suggested that if the record were not broken within 154 games (the season was now 162 games), then a mark, like an asterisk, should be added to it in record books. The stress of all of this weighed heavily on Maris. After breaking the record in 1961, he played seven more seasons, most with the Yankees and two with the St. Louis Cardinals, before retiring after the 1968 season. He had his number retired by the Yankees in 1984, but he has not yet been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Roger Maris died of non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 1985.
Maris was never a flashy player, and he was a very private person. His faith, always with him, was similarly private, though the testimony of his teammates and his family indicate that he lived a virtuous life, and cared for those around him.
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Margaret Brent, Savior of Maryland
King Charles I of England established the colony of Maryland in 1634 as a haven for Catholics. The colony was created at the request of, George Calvert, the first Baron Baltimore. But he died before his dream could be realized. So his son Cecil Calvert, the second Baron Baltimore, took on the task of settling the colony. He sent his brother, Leonard, over as governor. Four years after the colony was established, three member of the Catholic Brent family sailed over to aid in settling and growing the new Catholic colony. But the English Civil War of the 1640s brought conflict to the shores of Maryland. Margaret Brent, who was one of the largest landowners in the colonies at the time, stepped up in a big way to save the colony from destruction. For her efforts she was denounced by Lord Baltimore to the colonial legislature (who defended her actions), but the opposition from Lord Baltimore was enough for Margaret and her siblings. They all pulled up roots and moved to land they had acquired in Virginia, right across the Potomac River, where they established the first Catholic settlement in that colony. At the time of her death, Margaret Brent controlled a large portion of northern Virginia along the Potomac, including modern-day Old Town Alexandria, Mount Vernon, and Fredericksburg. A 15-foot-high bronze crucifix stands as a marker near the site of the Brent homestead and cemetery in Stafford County, Virginia.
Telling the stories of Catholics on these American shores from 1513 to today. We Catholics have such an incredible history in what are now the 50 states of the United States of America, and we hardly know it. From the canonized saints through the hundred-plus blesseds, venerables, and servants of God, to the hundreds more whose lives were sho-through with love of God, our country is covered from sea to shining sea with holy sites, historic structures, and the graves of great men and women of faith. We tell the stories that make them human, and so inspiring.
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