Mary Brackett Willcox papers, 1807-1864 (MC 10)
...hiladelphia area. The family’s mansion became the center of Catholicity in Delaware County, and served as the beginnings of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, the oldest parish in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. During the 1840s and 1850s, students and the Vincentian administrators of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary spent their summers
Other resources/repositories
...unty, PA Chester County Historical Society Bucks County Historical Society Delaware County Historical Society Pennsylvania Division of Vital Records The Pennsylvania State Archives Useful links Catholic Research Resources Alliance The Vatican Catholic History Links Catholic Online Directory Pope John Paul II Cultural Center New Advent/Catholic Encyclopedia The Hierarchy of the
Patrick Reilly papers, 1828-1878 (MC 42)
A priest who served in Wilmington, Delaware, Patrick Reilly (1807-1885) founded and ran St. Mary’s College in 1841. The school was considered the most prominent Catholic men’s boarding school in the mid-Atlantic region. Attendance at the school dropped significantly during the Civil War due to the fact that more than
A Brief History of the Growing Pains of the Church in Philadelphia
...inal boundary of the Diocese of Philadelphia included all of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and South Jersey. The first bishop was Michael Francis Egan, who had only 11 priests and 12 churches under his jurisdiction in Pennsylvania.[5] As the first bishop, Egan faced problems in establishing authority, with the trustees who ran