19 Facts About Edward Fenwick

Colonel Fenwick was a military figure of the American Revolution and one of the early Catholic families of Maryland.

Many families sent their sons abroad to study, and at sixteen years of age, Edward Fenwick was sent to the Dominican Holy Cross College in Bornem, near Antwerp, Belgium, where his uncle was a teacher.

In 1788 Edward Fenwick joined the Dominican Order and entered the seminary at Bornem as a theological student, and chose the name, "Dominic".

When Belgium was invaded during the French Revolution, Edward Fenwick was imprisoned, but later released upon proof of his American citizenship.

Edward Fenwick arrived in America in the autumn off 1804, accompanied by Friar Robert Angier.

Edward Fenwick was received by Bishop John Carroll, who suggested that Fenwick and the Dominicans who accompanied him should evangelize the vast regions of the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains, including the territories acquired in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.

In 1805, Edward Fenwick traversed the entire Mississippi Valley looking for a central location to continue his missionary work.

In 1806, Edward Fenwick purchased a 500-acre plantation near Springfield, Kentucky.

Edward Fenwick was known to ride forty miles out of his way to visit an isolated family.

Edward Fenwick often fasted while travelling, in anticipation of celebrating Mass once he reached his destination.

In 1808, Edward Fenwick reached Ohio, where he ministered to predominantly German and Irish families, many of whom knew little English.

Edward Fenwick went to Europe in 1823 to raise funding for the new diocese and returned in 1826 with resources to begin the construction of the cathedral, parochial schools, and to found the convents of the Sisters of Charity and of the first community of Dominican women in the United States that became Dominicans of St Catharine.

In 1829 Bishop Edward Fenwick established the St Francis Xavier Seminary.

Edward Fenwick was an American, but I should never have discovered it from his pronunciation or manner.

Edward Fenwick received his education partly in England, and partly in France.

Edward Fenwick's manners were highly polished; his piety active and sincere, and infinitely more mild and tolerant than that of the factious Sectarians who form the great majority of the American priesthood.

In 1831 Bishop Edward Fenwick initiated publication of The Catholic Telegraph diocesan newspaper.

Also in 1831, Bishop Edward Fenwick founded The Athenaeum, which later evolved into Xavier University and St Xavier High School.

Edward Fenwick is buried in a mausoleum in the new St Joseph Cemetery, Delhi Township, Hamilton County, OH.