Hecker, Isaac Thomas

Roman Catholic; b. in New-York City, Dec. 18, 1819; brought up a Protestant; in 1843 joined the community at Brook Farm, West Roxbury, Ma ., and some months later that at Fruit lands, Worcester County, Ma . For a time he lived with Thoreau in his hermitage. In 1845, on returning to New York, he became a Roman Catholic, and entered the Society of the Red empt or ist Fathers in 1847, having pa ed a novitiate of two years at St. Trond, Belgium. Until 1851 he did mi ion work in England. He returned to America in 1851, and continued his labors there. In 1857 he was at Rome released from his Red empt or ist vows, and allowed to organize a new society, " The Congregation of St. Paul the Apostle," of which he has ever been the chief. The Paulist Fathers, as they are called, are almost entirely Americans and converts from Protestant ism, and have proved themselves most efficient. Since 1865 they have carried on The Cathol 108 ic World, a monthly of ability and honesty. Father Hecker attended the Vatican Council as procurator of Bishop Rosencrans, Columbus, O. He is the author of Questions of the Soul, 1855; Aspirations of Nature, 1857; Catholicity in (he United States, 1879; Catholics and Protestants agreeing on the School Question, 1881 (the last two are pamphlets). *