Andrew White (Jesuit)

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Roman Catholic

Andrew White, SJ (1579 – December 27, 1656) was an

missionary who was involved in the founding of the Maryland colony.[1] He was a chronicler of the early colony, and his writings are a primary source on the land, the Native Americans of the area, and the Jesuit mission in North America. For his efforts in converting and educating the native population, he is frequently referred to as the "Apostle of Maryland." He is considered a forefather of Georgetown University, and is memorialized in the name of its White-Gravenor building, a central location of offices and classrooms on the university's campus.[2]

Early life in Europe

Born in

Society of Jesus on February 1, 1607. Despite the threat of capital punishment, White returned in 1609 to preach in Southern England. At the same time, he took positions as prefect of the seminaries at Louvain and Liège
, between which and his English missions he split his time.

Cecilius Calvert (1605-1675), inherited the title as second Baron Baltimore, continued the colonization program of his father. Lord Baltimore had wanted White to help found a new colony in the northern Chesapeake Bay which had been chartered by King Charles I
on June 20, 1632. White himself wrote of the benefits of converting the native population, and in a document dated February 10, 1633, he specifically advocates Catholic settlement in "lord Baltimore's Plantation in Mary-land." He describes to potential financiers a paradisaical land with majestic forests and fruitful soil, advertising 2,000 acres (8 km2) of land for each potential settler.

Colonization in Maryland

Latin, and Piscataway
languages

On November 22, 1633, he took Lord Baltimore's offer and set sail from

Catholic Mass of thanksgiving that day, he became the first priest to do so in one of the original thirteen English colonies.[5]

White wrote in his "Annual Letters of the English Province," while recounting speaking to a Piscataway man named Archihu, that White's purpose in this area was "not to make war, but out of good will towards them, in order to extend civilization and instruction to his ignorant race, and show them the way to heaven."[6] In these letters, Andrew White also recounts colonizing the land St. Marys sits on. Originally, “in order to avoid every appearance of injustice” White's party “bought” the land from the Indigenous, paying in “axes, hatchets, rakes, and several yards of cloth” in exchange for “thirty miles of that land.” [6] The Yaocomico's had planned to leave the area anyway and agreed to turn over their village to the English settlers.[6] White recounts the miracle of how the Indigenous people “[surrendered] themselves like lambs."[6]

White spent most of the next decade in

Piscataway Indians, to Christianity. The chief was baptized as Charles. He later baptized a daughter of the Patuxent
Indians, and much of her tribe.

In 1933, the architect and writer

Christopher La Farge, for the upcoming Tricentenary, 300th Anniversary of the founding of Maryland, designed a monument to Father White that is located just outside St. Mary's City.[8]

Return to England

The

Kent Island in the Chesapeake), in controlling the Province of Maryland
colony. White was again arrested for his 'evil' preaching, and in 1645 he was sent with Thomas Copley in chains to London. Once there, he was tried for the crime of returning to England after being banished in 1606, which carried the punishment of death. He escaped this fate by arguing that his return was not of his own will. His petitions to return to Maryland denied, he spent the last decade of his life quietly in England until his death on December 27, 1656.

Works

See also

References

  1. ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Andrew White" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  2. ^ Cho, Ah-Hyun (2005-11-08). "Buildings Pay Homage to GU's Most Famous Founders, Donors". The Hoya. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-07-03.
  3. ^ "Father Andrew White". St. Mary's City History. 2007-01-19. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-07-09.
  4. OCLC 8224468
    .
  5. ^ Earlier Catholic masses in what became the United States were celebrated in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565, in the Ajacan mission of the Spanish Jesuits at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in 1570, and perhaps at the French Jesuit mission of Saint Sauveur in Acadia (Maine) in 1609
  6. ^ a b c d Foley, Henry (1875). Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus : historic facts illustrative of the labours and sufferings of its members in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Robarts - University of Toronto. London : Burns and Oates. pp. 351–354.
  7. ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Maryland" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  8. ^ LaFarge, John, S.J. The Manner Is Ordinary. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1954, pp. 217-18.

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