Hecker, Isaac Thomas

(1819–88)

   Order Founder.

   Hecker was born in New York City in the United States of America. He was initially a Methodist, but became involved with Transcendentalism and in 1844 he was baptised into the Roman Catholic Church. He joined the Redemptorist Order and, after studying in Belgium and Holland, he was ordained in England by Cardinal wiseman. In 1851 he returned to the United States. He started to work with Catholic immigrants, but he was dispensed from his vows in 1857 by Pope Pius IX after coming into conflict with his superiors. However, he obtained permission to found the Missionary Priests of St Paul the Apostle, generally known as the Paulist Order. Its members live under a rule similar to that of the Redemptorists and the order is dedicated to mission, particularly among Protestants. Although Pope Leo XIII may have been thinking of the Paulists when he condemned ‘Americanism’ (that is the adaptation of the life of the Church to American norms) in 1899, there is no certain evidence of this, and the order has survived and continues its work.

   J.M. Gillis, The Paulists (1932);

   V.F. Holden, The Yankee Paul (1958);

   T.T. McAvoy, The Great Crisis in American Catholic History 1895–1900 (1957).