Centenarian Priest Speaks of Bells and Prayer – Oral History Interview

Monsignor Charles Monaghan, the oldest priest in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, turned 100 on March 31, 2015. In a 2007 taped interview, Msgr. Monaghan spoke of his earliest desire to be a priest, which came in the form of bells at Ascension of Our Lord Church.  Click the link below to listen to him

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Recently Processed Collection: John Gilmary Shea Correspondence

As an intern for PAHRC, I was tasked with processing the collection titled, John Gilmary Shea Correspondence, 1836-1891 (MC 51). John Gilmary Shea was not only a writer, editor, and lawyer, Shea was considered the leading American Catholic historian of his time. Shea was only 14 years old when he published

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The Battle of Antietam: a Philadelphia soldier’s experience

This past Monday, September 17, marked the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest single-day battle in American history. The 69th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, with which Philadelphia native William C. White served, participated in this harrowing conflict. Several letters that White wrote to his parents shortly after

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“An Appeal to Truth”

As a volunteer here at PAHRC for the summer, I’ve been cataloging the pamphlet collection. One of the first pamphlets I dealt with immediately caught my attention. Entitled “An Appeal to Truth”, it was written in 1915 by Cardinal Mercier, who was then serving as the Archbishop of Malines (Mechelen)

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