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Joseph Sadoc Alemany

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His Excellency, The Most Reverend
Joseph Sadoc Alemany
O.P.
Archbishop of San Francisco
See San Francisco
Installed July 29, 1853
Term ended December 28, 1884
Successor Patrick William Riordan
Other post Bishop of Monterey (1850–1853)
Orders
Ordination March 11, 1837
by Gaspare Bernardo Pianetti
Consecration June 30, 1850
by Giacomo Filippo Fransoni
Personal details
Born Josep Sadoc Alemany i Conill
July 3, 1814
Vic, Catalonia, Spain
Died April 14, 1888 (aged 73)
Valencia, Spain
Buried Church of Sant Domènec, Vic, Catalonia, Spain (1888-1965); Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma, California, United States
Denomination Roman Catholic Church
Parents Antoni Alemany i Font & Miquela dels Sants Conill i Saborit
Alma mater Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas

Joseph Sadoc Alemany, O.P. (Spanish: José Sadoc Alemany y Conill;; July 3, 1814 – April 14, 1888) was a Spanish Catholic prelate who served as archbishop of San Francisco in California from 1853 to 1884. He previously served as the first bishop of Monterey in California from 1850 to 1853. He was a member of the Dominican Order.

Early life

Joseph Alemany was born in Vic, Catalonia in Spain on July 3, 1814, to Antoni Alemany i Font and Miquela dels Sants Conill i Saborit.[1] Alemany entered the Dominican Order in 1829 at age 15, studying theology at a convent in Vic and the Convent de Sant Domènec de Girona in Girona, Spain.[1] He made his solemn profession of religious vows to the Dominicans in 1831.[2]

In 1834, an outburst of deadly anti-clerical rioting in Spain prompted Reverend Tomasso Cipolletti, the Dominican grandmaster, to offer Alemany and other Dominican seminarians refuge in the Dominican convent in Viterbo, Italy.[3] Alemany began studying at the College of St. Thomas, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, where in 1840 he was made Lector in Theology.[4]

Priesthood

Alemany was ordained a priest for the Dominican Order in Viterbo Cathedral in Viterbo, Italy, on March 11, 1837, by Archbishop Gaspare Bernardo Pianetti. During his studies in Rome, Alemany had an audience with Pope Gregory XVI.[5]

The Dominican superiors sent Alemany to conduct missionary working in the State of Ohio in the United States in 1841. He was transferred to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1842 and then Memphis, Tennessee in 1845. He became a naturalized American citizen that same year. The Dominicans in 1847 appointed him as master of novices in Kentucky in 1847 and then in 1849 as prior provincial for the Dominicans in the American Midwest.[6][2]

Bishop of Monterey

Preparation for departure

In 1849, Alemany traveled to Rome to attend a meeting of the general chapter of the Dominicans in Naples, Italy. His abilities as a missionary, plus his fluency in Spanish, had attracted the attention of the papal court at this time.[6] Pope Pius IX appointed Alemany as the first bishop of Monterey on May 31, 1850,

On June 11, while Alemany was still in Rome, Cardinal Giacomo Filippo Fransoni summoned him to a meeting, informing him of his appointment as bishop. Alemany declined it because he had no desire to become a bishop. When Pius IX learned about Alemany's answer, he ordered him to appear in a private audience on June 16. The pope told Alemany, "You must go to California....Where others are drawn by gold, you must carry the Cross." Alemany accepted the appointment and was consecrated by Fransoni as Bishop of Monterey on June 30 in Rome at the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso. Alemany became the first bishop of California since it became an American territory.[7]

When Alemany became bishop, his new diocese covered the California Territory, the Nevada Territory and the Utah Territory. During the early 19th century, the Catholic Church owned thousands of acres of land in the Spanish colonies in California. However, the Mexican Government in 1835 expropriated most of that land, redistributing to private landowners.[8][9]

As a result of the expropriations, the new diocese of Monterey lacked both money and personnel. During the summer of 1850, Alemany visited England, France and Ireland, trying to raise money and recruit religious sisters. He did not have any success recruiting sisters until he arrived the Monastery of the Cross in Paris. He found three volunteers at the convent, including Sister Mary Goemaere, a Belgian novice.[10]

Alemany, the sisters, and Reverend Francis Sadoc Vilarassa, another Dominican priest, left Liverpool, England in September 1850 on the SS Columbus for New York City. Alemany made stops in Baltimore, Maryland, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C. to preach and raise money. He originally planned to send all the sisters to a Dominican convent in Ohio, then decided that Goemaere should accompany him to California. The group finally sailed the Caribbean oast of Panama, traveled overland by mule and dugout canoe to the Pacific coast, and took a steam ship to California.[10][3]

Arrival in California

Alemany, Goemaere and Vila finally arrived in San Francisco in December 1850. After a short time in San Francisco, Alemany traveled to Santa Barbara, California, and then Monterey, California. Vilarassa in 1851 established the province of the Holy Name of Jesus, the first Dominican province in the Western United States.[3][2]

That same year, Alemany appointed Reverend John Nobili, a Jesuit priest, as pastor of the Santa Clara Mission. Nobili would found the Santa Clara School in Santa Clara, California, for boys in 1851. It later became Santa Clara University.[11] In April 1851, Goemaere opened the Santa Catalina School for girls in Monterey. She established a convent that would become the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael.[12][10] The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur founded the Academy of Notre Dame for girls in San Jose, California, in 1851. It later became Notre Dame de Namur University.[13]

In 1853, Alemany filed a petition with the Public Land Commission of the State of California for the return of all expropriated mission lands. He eventually received all the missions, their grounds and cemeteries, along with two large ranchos, or estates:

  • Rando Cañada de los Pinos (College Rancho) in Santa Barbara County, comprising 35,499.73 acres (143.6623 km2)[14]
  • Rancho Laguna in San Luis Obispo County, consisting of 4,157.02 acres (16.8229 km2).[14]

San Francisco

On July 29, 1853, Pius IX removed Northern California, Nevada and Utah from the Diocese of Monterey and established this area as the Archdiocese of San Francisco. He appointed Alemany as its first archbishop.[5] At that time, the archdiocese had only three churches in San Francisco;

  • Mission Dolores, established by Spanish missionaries in 1776, used by Spanish-speaking Catholics[15]
  • St. Francis of Assisi, erected for Catholic soldiers in 1849[16]
  • St. Patrick Church, established for Irish immigrants in 1851[17]

As archbishop of San Francisco, Alemany presided over what became a multinational diocese, owing to the influx of people during the California Gold Rush. He established national parishes for San Francisco's Italian, Irish, French, German and Mexican communities.[18]

In 1855, the Jesuits opened St. Ignatius Academy for boys in San Francisco, It later became the University of San Francisco.[19]

After the start of the American Civil War in April 1861, a division of loyalties emerged in San Francisco between supporters of the secessionist Confederate States of America and those of the federal government. In the summer of 1861, federal supporters started pressuring Alemany to fly the American flag from all the San Francisco churches on Independence Day, July 4. While expressing dismay at the start of the war, Alemany refused to fly the flags.[20]

Alemany in 1862 founded Saint Mary's College in Moraga, California, for the education of the children of working people. He turned the operation of the college over to De La Salle Brothers in 1868.[21]

In October 1866, Alemany attended the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore, a meeting of the bishops and archbishops of the United States in Baltimore, Maryland.[3] The Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary founded Holy Name University for girls in Oakland, California, in 1868.[22]

The Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose were established in the archdiocese in 1876.In 1883, at Alemany's request, Pope Leo XIII appointed Reverend Patrick Riordan as coadjutor archbishop to assist Alemany[5]

Later life

Leo XIII accepted Alemany resignation as archbishop of San Francisco in early 1885. He then left San Francisco for New York City in early 1885. While in New York, he was introduced by William Rosecrans, a former congressman from California, to US President Grover Cleveland. After traveling in Rome, Alemany was granted an audience with Leo XIII, who appointed him as titular archbishop of Pelusium on March 20, 1885.[5]

Alemany's final destination was the Convent of Santo Domingo in Valencia, Spain. He spent the rest of his life working to rehabilitate the Dominican order in Spain. Alemany died at the convent on April 14, 1888.[6] He was buried in the Church of Sant Domènec in Vic.[23]

In 1965, the Archdiocese of San Francisco brought Alemany's remains back to California. Archbishop Joseph T. McGucken celebrated a requiem mass for him at the Old Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception. His remains were re-interred in the Archbishops' Crypt in the mausoleum in Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California.[24]

The following places were named in honor of Alemany:

  • Alemany Boulevard in San Francisco[25]
  • Alemany Maze, a freeway interchange, in San Francisco
  • Bishop Alemany High School in Mission Hills, California[26]
  • Archbishop Alemany Library at Dominican University of California in San Rafael, California[27]

Publications

The Life of St. Dominick And A Sketch Of The Dominican Order.[6]

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Most Rev. Joseph Sadoc Alemany. O.P., D.D.

Joseph Sadoc Alemany, first Archbishop of San Francisco, California, U. S. A., b. at Vich in Spain, 13 July, 1814; d. at Valencia in Spain, 14 April, 1888. He entered at an early age the Order of St. Dominic, was ordained priest at Viterbo in Italy, 27 March, 1837; consecrated Bishop of Monterey in California (at Rome) 30 June, 1850, and was transferred 29 July, 1853, to the See of San Francisco as its first archbishop. He resigned in November, 1884, was appointed titular Archbishop of Pelusium. California having but recently passed from Mexican to American rule and still containing a large Spanish population with Spanish customs and traditions, the appointment of Archbishop Alemany as the first bishop under the changed conditions was a providential measure. Ten years of missionary activity in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee had enabled him to master the English language, which he spoke and wrote correctly and fluently, familiarized him with the customs and spirit of the Republic; and imbued him with a love for the United States which he carried with him to the grave. His episcopal labours were to begin among a population composed of almost all nationalities. Born in Spain, educated in Rome, and long resident in America, his experience and his command of several languages put him in touch and in sympathy with all the elements of his diocese. His humility and simplicity of manner, though by nature retiring, drew to him the hearts of all classes. Naturally his first thought was to secure a body of priests and nuns as co-labourers in his new field; for this he made partial provision before reaching San Francisco. The Franciscan Missions (whose memory and whose remains in the second century of their existence are still treasured not by California alone, but by the whole country) having been lately confiscated in the name of "secularization", the missionaries driven away and their flocks largely dispersed, it was evident that his work was simply to create all that a new order of things called for, an order as unique as a bishop ever had to encounter. The discovery of gold in California a few years before his appointment had attracted to it a population from every quarter of the world, most of whom thought little of making it their permanent home. Many, however, brought the old Faith with them and even in the mad rush of all for gold were ready to respond generously to a personality such as that of the young bishop. When he began his work, there were but twenty-one adobe mission-churches scattered up and down the State, and not more than a dozen priests in all California. He lived to see the State divided into three dioceses with about three hundred thousand Catholic population, many churches of modern architecture and some of respectable dimensions, a body of devoted clergy, secular and regular, charitable and educational institutions conducted by the teaching orders of both men and women, such as to meet, as far as possible under the circumstances, the wants of a constantly growing population. He was ever intent, as the first object of his work, upon the spiritual welfare of his people, but in the early years of his ministry in California much arduous labour was expended in protecting the church property from "Squatters", and in prosecuting the claims of the "Pious Fund" against Mexico. Through the State Department of the United States Government he compelled Mexico to respect her self-made agreement with the Church in California to pay at least the interest up to the date of the decision upon the moneys derived from the enforced sale of the Mission property at the time of the "secularization" and which had been turned into the Mexican Treasury. Under his successor, in the year 1902, a final adjudication of the "Pious Fund" in favour of the Church in California was reached by an International Board of Arbitration at The Hague.

The episcopal office which he had accepted only under obedience was, in a human sense, never congenial to Archbishop Alemany; his whole temperament inclined him to be simply a missionary priest; in a large sense, he continued to be such up to the day of his resignation. His characteristic devotion to the rights of the Church, his love of a common sense freedom of the individual, and particularly his admiration of the free institutions of the American Union, were manifested by an occurrence on the occasion of a visit made to his native land after many years' absence. Before an infidel spirit had poisoned the minds of many in power, even in Catholic countries, it had been the custom in Spain, as in other Catholic lands, for priests to wear their sacerdotal dress in the streets. This new spirit indeed had driven him from Spain when a student, desiring as he did to become a member of one of the proscribed Orders, and when he returned on the occasion in question it was a novelty to see him in the streets dressed as a Dominican Friar. When his would-be custodian warned him to put off his cassock for outdoor use he produced his passport as an American citizen, stating that in his adopted country, where Catholics were greatly in the minority, he was permitted to wear any sort of coat he preferred and that surely this privilege would not be denied him in Catholic Spain, the land of his birth. It was not denied him; at least, for that once. So wedded was he to the Order of St. Dominic that when becoming Bishop of Monterey, and ever after till his death, he wore the white cassock of the Order and in letter and spirit adhered to the Rule of St. Dominic as far as it is possible outside of community life. The exalted office of archbishop did not grow more agreeable to him with years, and with a view of resigning and becoming again a missionary priest he besought Rome to grant him a coadjutor, cum jure successionis, long before one was given him. When, however, his prayer was heard, which was not until he had reached the scriptural age of three score years and ten, he lovingly transferred to his successor the burden which he had borne long and faithfully for his Master's sake. Whilst he had ever the greatest consideration for the comfort of others his own life was one of austerity. No one but himself ever entered his living apartments, which were so connected with the church that he could make his visits to the Blessed Sacrament and keep his long vigils at a little latticed window looking in upon the Tabernacle. No one ever saw him manifest anger; he was ever gentle, but firm when duty called for this. So considerate was he for the feelings of others that he certainly never intentionally or unjustly wounded them. Most thoughtful and courteous in all he did, he journeyed a thousand miles to Ogden, Utah, in November, 1883, to meet for the first time, to accompany thence and to welcome to San Francisco his coadjutor and successor, the Most Rev. P. W. Riordan. From the first meeting and until his death the closest and tenderest friendship existed between them. Having acquainted his successor fully with diocesan affairs and transferred to him as a "corporation sole" all diocesan property (according to a law which he had had passed through the California legislature for the better security of church property), the Archbishop resigned in 1884, returned to his native land, and died there. His intense love for the missionary life and his zeal for souls did not end with his resignation, his seventy years unfitted him for active work of that nature, but he returned to Spain with a dream of founding a missionary college to supply priests for the American missions. For this purpose he left behind him in San Francisco the amount of a testimonial given him by the priests and people of the diocese as some little recognition of his long services and the example of his saintly life among them. He stipulated that, should he not use it for that purpose, it should be expended by his successor for religious and charitable purposes in San Francisco. He received generous support from the diocese, but found the proposed missionary college impracticable. So, on his retirement from thirty years of apostolic labours in California, he left as a legacy to the diocese the example of a true apostle, and died as an apostle should, possessing nothing but the merits of his "works which had gone before him".

Reuss, Biographical Encycl. of the Cath. Hierarchy of the U. S. (Milwaukee, Wis., 1898); Dominicana (San Francisco, 1900–6).

References

  1. Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Johnson 1906, p. 73
  2. Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Back to citation occurrence 2.2 McGloin, John B. (1951). "The Coming of Joseph Sadoc Alemany, O.P., Pioneer Prelate of El Dorado". Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. 62 (4): 203–212. ISSN 0002-7790. JSTOR 44210186.
  3. Back to citation occurrence 3.0 Back to citation occurrence 3.1 Back to citation occurrence 3.2 Back to citation occurrence 3.3 Starrs, Paul M. (1952). "The California Chronicle of Francis Sadoc Vilarrasa, O.P., 1850-1874". The Catholic Historical Review. 37 (4): 415–436. ISSN 0008-8080. JSTOR 25015346.
  4. Back to citation "Upon the completion of his studies, he was awarded the degree of Lectorate in Theology at the Minerva, one of the venerable centers of Dominican life and culture." Mission West: The Western Dominican Province 1850-1966, 1995, Western Dominican Province Oakland, California, "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on May 22, 2014. Retrieved May 22, 2014. Accessed May 21, 2014.
  5. Back to citation occurrence 5.0 Back to citation occurrence 5.1 Back to citation occurrence 5.2 Back to citation occurrence 5.3 "Archbishop Joseph Sadoc Alemany y Conill [Catholic-Hierarchy]". www.catholic-hierarchy.org. Retrieved February 9, 2025.
  6. Back to citation occurrence 6.0 Back to citation occurrence 6.1 Back to citation occurrence 6.2 Back to citation occurrence 6.3 Johnson 1906, p. 74
  7. Back to citation O'Brien, Kevin. "History". www.diocese-sacramento.org. Archived from the original on June 28, 2006. Retrieved February 9, 2025; "Archbishop Joseph Sadoc Alemany y Conill [Catholic-Hierarchy]". www.catholic-hierarchy.org. Retrieved February 9, 2025; McGloin, John B. (1951). "The Coming of Joseph Sadoc Alemany, O.P., Pioneer Prelate of El Dorado". Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. 62 (4): 203–212. ISSN 0002-7790. JSTOR 44210186.
  8. Back to citation "Monterey County Historical Society, Local History Pages--Secularization and the Ranchos, 1826-1846". mchsmuseum.com. Retrieved October 26, 2017.
  9. Back to citation Land in California: The Story of Mission Lands, Ranchos, Squatters, Mining... By William Wilcox Robinson, p. 29: The cortes (legislature) of New Spain issued a decree in 1813 for at least partial secularization that affected all missions in America and was to apply to all outposts that had operated for ten years or more; however, the decree was never enforced in California.
  10. Back to citation occurrence 10.0 Back to citation occurrence 10.1 Back to citation occurrence 10.2 Dougherty, M. Patricia (1994). "Adventure and Authority in Gold Rush California: Mary Goemaere and the Foundation of the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael". Dominican University of California. Retrieved February 8, 2025.
  11. Back to citation "History - About SCU - Santa Clara University". www.scu.edu. Retrieved February 9, 2025.
  12. Back to citation "Who We Are: Congregation History". Dominican Sisters of San Rafael.
  13. Back to citation "Notre Dame de Namur University Accreditation". www.ndnu.edu. January 3, 2022. Retrieved February 9, 2025.
  14. Back to citation occurrence 14.0 Back to citation occurrence 14.1 Robinson 1948, pp. 31–32
  15. Back to citation "Old Mission". www.missiondolores.org. Retrieved February 9, 2025.
  16. Back to citation "History – National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi". Retrieved February 9, 2025.
  17. Back to citation "Our History". www.stpatricksf.org. Archived from the original on December 3, 2024. Retrieved February 9, 2025.
  18. Back to citation Presentation Sisters to celebrate 150 years
  19. Back to citation "Our History | University of San Francisco". www.usfca.edu. Retrieved February 9, 2025.
  20. Back to citation McGloin, John Bernard (1962). "Catholic Attitudes in San Francisco During the Civil War". Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. 73 (1/2): 51–57. ISSN 0002-7790. JSTOR 44210431.
  21. Back to citation "Mission & History | Saint Mary's College". www.stmarys-ca.edu. Retrieved February 10, 2025.
  22. Back to citation "Learn The History of HNU - Founded in 1868". hnu.edu. October 2, 2019. Retrieved February 9, 2025.
  23. Back to citation Weber, Francis J. "THE RETURN OF THE ARCHBISHOP" (PDF). Dominicana Journal. Retrieved February 10, 2025.
  24. Back to citation Holman, Jim (March 2, 2014). "'You must really go to California'". California Catholic Daily. Retrieved February 10, 2025.
  25. Back to citation "Early San Francisco Street Names - 1846-1849". sfmuseum.org. Retrieved February 10, 2025.
  26. Back to citation "Alemany History". www.alemany.org. Retrieved February 10, 2025.
  27. Back to citation "The Archbishop Alemany Library". www.dominican.edu. Retrieved February 10, 2025.

Bibliography

Sources

  • Mc Gloin, S.J., John B. California's First Archbishop: The Life of Joseph Sadoc Alemany, O.P., 1814–1888. New York: Herder and Herder, 1966.
  • Parmisano, Fabian Stan. Mission West: The Western Dominican Province, 1850–1966. Oakland, California: Western Dominican Province, 1995.
  • Weber, Francis J. 1973. Joseph Sadoc Alemany: Harbinger of a New Era. Los Angeles: Dawson's Book Shop
  • Robinson, W. W. (1948). Land in California. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
  • Who Was Who in America: Historical Volume, 1607–1896. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1967.
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