Produced by David McClamrock THE LIFE OF FATHER HECKER BY REV. WALTER ELLIOTT ________________________ NEW YORK: THE COLUMBUS PRESS 1891 ________________________ Nihil obstat: AUGUSTINUS F. HEWIT, _Censor Deputatus._ Imprimatur: M. A. CORRIGAN, _Archiepiscopus Neo-Ebor._ ________________________ AUTHOR'S PREFACE THE reader must indulge me with what I cannot help saying, that I have felt the joy of a son in telling the achievements and chronicling the virtues of Father Hecker. I loved him with the sacred fire of holy kinship, and love him still--only the more that lapse of time has deepened by experience, inner and outer, the sense of truth and of purity he ever communicated to me in life, and courage and fidelity to conscience. I feel it to be honor enough and joy enough for a life-time that I am his first biographer, though but a late born child and of merit entirely insignificant. The literary work is, indeed, but of home-made quality, yet it serves to hold together what is the heaven-made wisdom of a great teacher of men. It will be found that Father Hecker has three words in this book to my one, though all my words I tried to make his. His journals, letters, and recorded sayings are the edifice into which I introduce the reader, and my words are the hinges and latchets of its doors. I am glad of this, for it pleases me to dedicate my good will and my poor work to swinging open the doors of that new House of God that Isaac Hecker was to me, and that I trust he will be to many. WALTER ELLIOTT ________________________ CONTENTS ________________________ CHAPTER I.--CHILDHOOD II.--YOUTH III.--THE TURNING-POINT IV.--LED BY THE SPIRIT V.--AT BROOK FARM VI.--INNER LIFE WHILE AT BROOK FARM VII.--STRUGGLES VIII.--FRUITLANDS IX.--SELF-QUESTIONINGS X.--AT HOME AGAIN XI.--STUDYING AND WRITING XII.--THE MYSTIC AND THE PHILOSOPHER XIII.--HIS SEARCH AMONG THE SECTS XIV.--HIS LIFE AT CONCORD XV.--AT THE DOOR OF THE CHURCH XVI.--AT THE DOOR OF THE CHURCH--(Continued) XVII.--ACROSS THE THRESHOLD XVIII.--NEW INFLUENCES XIX.--YEARNINGS AFTER CONTEMPLATION XX.--FROM NEW YORK TO ST. TROND XXI.--BROTHER HECKER XXII.--HOW BROTHER HECKER MADE HIS STUDIES AND WAS ORDAINED PRIEST XXIII.--A REDEMPTORIST MISSIONARY XXIV.--SEPARATION FROM THE REDEMPTORISTS XXV.--BEGINNINGS OF THE PAULIST COMMUNITY XXVI.--FATHER HECKER'S IDEA OF A RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY XXVII.--FATHER HECKER'S SPIRITUAL DOCTRINE XXVIII.--THE PAULIST PARISH AND MISSIONS XXIX.--FATHER HECKER'S LECTURES XXX.--THE APOSTOLATE OF THE PRESS XXXI.--THE VATICAN COUNCIL XXXII.--THE LONG ILLNESS XXXIII.--"THE EXPOSITION OF THE CHURCH" XXXIV.--IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH XXXV.--CONCLUSION APPENDIX ________________________ INTRODUCTION BY MOST REV. JOHN IRELAND, D.D., _Archbishop of St. Paul._