"With the saints we can weave a relationship of friendship."Causes of the saints, new rules on assetsAt the recent assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, held at BaltimoreThe bishops voted to advance the cause of canonization of a New Yorker, Isaac Hecker, once known as "Ernest the Seeker".
Father Hecker was born in New York in 1819 to poor German parents. His mother was a devout Methodist, and that influenced Isaac. At the tender age of three, young Isaac contracted smallpox and death seemed imminent. His family gathered around him and told him he would not survive and would soon go to God. Isaac had other plans and replied, "No, I will not die now; God has a great work for me, and I will live to do it."
Isaac's childhood was not easy, and he met with an unexpected interruption when his father abandoned the family when he was about four or five years old. With financial problems, his two older brothers dropped out of school and opened a bakery, which would be very successful. Isaac worked for his brothers, but was never satisfied with the trade because his soul longed to understand what God wanted of him.
In his early twenties, Isaac Hecker had what is described as a "mystical experience." He wrote: "I saw a beautiful angelic being and myself standing beside her feeling the most heavenly pure joy. It was but a dream; I have not yet attained the power to speak of it. Rest in me underdeveloped." This would begin his profound religious journey, but he could not yet put a name to it. Subsequently, he stopped eating and was too distracted to work after his "vision." He wrote in his journal, "This vision hovers over me, and its beauty prevents me from accepting anything else."
His concerned brothers contacted Orestes Bronson, a minister and writer who would positively influence Isaac's life. He was also a contemporary of Emerson and other like-minded men, and asked questions like Isaac, such as "Is the world more than it seems? Is there a deeper side to life? Is there something we go through that opens our eyes to the ultimate questions of life?" Bronson and Emerson were then the most reputable intellectuals in the country.
Ernest The Seeker
Orestes Bronson acts as Isaac Hecker's father figure. He invites him to Brook Farm, a transcendentalist commune where he would have the opportunity to be among the movers and shakers of the time who had a new vision for America. These men were ministers, philosophers and writers such as Henry David Thoreau and Emerson, who were leading this movement. Isaac was exposed to their ideas, philosophies and wisdom. He liked them for their "sincerity and curiosity," which earned him the nickname "Ernest the Seeker." He wrote:
"I went for a walk in the forest, and the scenery was beautiful; the green pines and the moss of various tints, and the clouds with the sun bursting through them; the silence and the shadowy mystery of the forest produced such a charm for me."
The mystics
Still searching for something deeper, Isaac spent time at Fruitlands, another commune of the Transcendentalist Club, whose library was filled with Catholic mystics, such as Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, and Catherine of Genoa, but a place Isaac found unsatisfactory. He wrote, "Without religion as a basis, guided by the Holy Spirit, it seems to me that there is no hope for these community movements." Isaac believed there was more to it and left Fruitlands and, in 1844, moved back to New York City.
Upon his return, he could either immerse himself in his family's business, which became quite successful, or take the path to which he was ultimately headed, but which was still unknown and indescribable to him. "The fact is that I can do nothing while there is a presence so deep, I don't know what to call it, so deep within me," Isaac wrote.
Isaack Hecker continues to search for meaning, meets with leaders of many religious groups of the time and "falls in love with Catholicism." At the time, the Roman Catholic Church was "the most despised church in America and the least respectable and yet so rich and full," says Isaac Hecker. He attended several Catholic Masses and said, "I know not whether this Church is or is not what certain men call it, but this I do know that it has the life for which my heart thirsts and for which my spirit is in great need." On August 4, 1844, Isaac Hecker was baptized in the old St. Patrick's Basilica in Manhattan.
Shortly after his baptism, Isaac Hecker was ordained a priest and joined the Redemptorist Community. He delighted in the missionary work to which he devoted himself and found it "a great source of consolation." He even preached to non-Catholics at a time when anti-Catholic sentiment was rampant in America and when people wondered if it was possible to be Catholic and American at the same time. But still, Isaac Hecker was optimistic and believed that "The prospects for our holy faith were never so encouraging in America as at the present time; the American people are capable of great enthusiasm; they will produce the worthy effects of our faith and of our spiritual mother, the Catholic Church."
He would write his first book, "Questions of the Soul," and others; however, what followed was a period of darkness for him because he faced challenges when his new superior general disagreed with his approaches and ideas. But determined and guided by the Holy Spirit, he went to Rome and defended his cause. In an interview, Cardinal Edward Egan (April 1932-March 5, 2005), former cardinal of the Archdiocese of New York, said, "Hecker was right...we needed to bring the Gospel to America the American way."
Homage to St. Paul the Apostle
On March 6, 1858, Redemptorist priests formed another religious community, the first male religious founded in the United States, the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle, known to many as the Paulist Fathers. Isaac Hecker named it after St. Paul the Apostle, who was "most responsible for the initial spread of Christianity." "The Paulist Fathers wanted to spread the message of Catholicism throughout the new world," as St. Paul had done throughout the old world.
"Our vocation is to welcome souls into the Catholic faith, to spread the faith through conferences, missions, lectures, sermons, the pen and the press," say the Paulist Fathers of their work.
The steam priest
Isaac Hecker entered a joyous and productive era. He founded the first Catholic publishing house in the United States, called Paulist Press. He lectured to lay audiences and encouraged the audience to pray: "Prayer is to the life of the soul as breathing is to the life of the body. Pray when you get up and get dressed, pray when you go to work...". He was given the name "the priest of steam". Many scholars note that he "spoke American, knew the American people and did his best to move the Catholic Church to that environment." When the former Archbishop of New York, John Hughes, established a new parish west of the newly urbanized Central Park, he assigned it to the new religious community. "Isaac believed that America had a saving mission in the world, especially toward the Catholic Church," opines William Portier, author and theologian.
Isaac Hecker, priest, editor, missionary preacher and publisher, died on December 22, 1888 in the rectory of St. Paul the Apostle Church in Manhattan, surrounded by his Paulist confreres. The cause for the beatification and canonization of Fr. Hecker was formally opened in 2008, when he received the title of "Servant of God".
