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CHAPTER 1
BEGINNINGS
Continued
Another memory recorded by Taylor again speaks well of Ramirez, though one wonders
whether to judge the friar's preaching by Taylor's generous words about it or by his and
others' conduct during it.
I attended the Catholic Church in Monterey [San Carlos] one Sunday to hear good old
Padre Ramirez. The church is small and with scanty decorations; the nave and gallery were
both crowded by the Californian families and Indians. Near the door hung opposite pictures
of Heaven and Hell -- the former a sort of pyramid inhabited by straight white figures,
with an aspect of solemn distress [sic]; the latter enclosed in the expanded jaws of a
dragon, swarming with devils who tormented their victims with spears and pitch forks. The
church music was furnished by a diminutive parlor organ, and consisted of a choice list of
polkas, waltzes, and fandango airs. Padre Ramirez preached a very excellent sermon,
recommending his Catholic flock to follow the example of the Protestants, who, he said,
were more truly pious than they and did much more for the welfare of their church. I
noticed that during the sermon several of the Californians disappeared through a small
door at the end of the gallery. Following them, out of curiosity, I found them all seated
in the belfry and along the coping of the front, composedly smoking their cigars.
As pastor of San Carlos Fr. Ramirez greeted Bishop Alemany, Fr. Vilarrasa, and Sr. Mary
Goemaere when they first arrived in Monterey, Jan. 28, 1851, and assisted at the various
ceremonies and masses of welcome in his church now become cathedral. He continued on as
pastor, with the assistance of Fr. Vilarrasa, who, among his other duties, had the charge
of San Carlos Mission in Carmel. It seems Fr. Ramirez was a minister at the Solemn High
Mass celebrated on August 4, 1851, the feast of St. Dominic, in the chapel of the Sisters'
convent of Santa Catalina which Alemany, in his assumed role as provincial, had
established on March 13. At the Pontifical Mass at the Cathedral on the following Sunday,
Fr. Ramirez preached a panegyric on St. Dominic. He was also present at the establishment
of the men's convent of St. Dominic in Monterey on February 4, 1852 and, as Vilarrasa's
Chronicle continues, "The same day, in the evening, we all gathered in choir, where
certain regulations made by me for the orderly administration of the convent and for
regular observance were made public by Fr. Ignatius Ramirez de Arellano of the Mexican
Province." Ramirez may have taken up residence in the convent, but there is no
documentation of this at hand. We know that he remained in Monterey, probably continuing
on as pastor of San Carlos, at least until February 2, 1853, the date of his last
baptismal entry at San Carlos. When Fr. Ramirez returned to Mexico, Vilarrasa succeeded
him as pastor of the cathedral church.
Fr. Peter Augustine Anderson: Martyr to Charity
The Spanish and Mexican Dominicans who in the early 1800s continued on in Baja and now
and again made their way into Alta California acted pretty much as individuals with little
if any thought of a future California province. It was different with another pioneer
Dominican missionary, this one a U.S. citizen from birth and making his way to Alta
California from much further afield. It would seem that the inspiration toward a
full-blown Dominican foundation for the western United States, particularly California,
originated with him; and he gave his life that it might be fulfilled.
Peter Anderson was born of Protestant parents in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on January 8,
1812. In 1827, when he was fifteen, his family emigrated to Ohio. Soon after this move
west his father died, leaving him the sole support of his widowed mother and younger
brothers and sisters. Under the inspiration and guidance of the Dominicans then serving in
Ohio, Peter with his whole family entered the Catholic Church. His new-found faith ran
deep, for almost immediately upon his conversion, and presumably because his younger
brothers were now able to provide for the family, Peter became a postulant for the
Dominican Order at St. Joseph's Priory in Somerset. In 1831 he was sent to St. Rose Priory
near Springfield, Kentucky -- the oldest Dominican foundation in the United States --
where he received the habit in 1832, taking the name of Augustine. His year of novitiate
completed, he made his solemn profession on August 4, 1833, at the hands of his prior, Fr.
Richard Pius Miles. In view of the manner of Fr. Anderson's near-future death, it is
significant that it was in this year that a severe plague of Asiatic cholera broke out in
and around Springfield. The fathers and brothers of St. Rose, including presumably Brother
Augustine, together with the Dominican sisters of St. Mary Magdalen convent, were at
constant risk of their own lives as day and night they ministered to the sick and dying.
Seven years later, on April 4, 1840, Peter was ordained a priest at St. Rose by the same
Richard Miles who had received his vows, now Bishop Miles of Nashville, Tennessee.
Fr. Anderson spent his first years as a priest at St. Rose, leading the contemplative
life that was his as a Dominican but he was severely restricted in his ministry by a
stern, "hard-fisted" prior and former provincial, Fr. Nicholas Dominic Young.
After several years on the leash he grew restless. In 1845, together with another
Dominican, Fr. James Vincent Bullock, he wrote to the noted missionary, Fr. Samuel Charles
Mazzuchelli, asking if he might join the newly established "mid-west" province
of St. Charles, which Mazzuchelli himself had founded. The transfiliation, however, was
not made. Instead, on December 4 of this same year, he was elected socius of the prior
going to the provincial chapter to be convened at St. Joseph's Priory/Novitiate on
December 31, and at this chapter he was assigned to St. Joseph's. On January 13 of the
following year Fr. Anderson was elected the convent's procurator at a council meeting
signed by Fr. Francis Sadoc Vilarrasa as secretary. At a meeting of the council of
February 6 he was made secretary while Fr. Vilarrasa was reelected novice master at St.
Joseph's. At the house meeting of February 20 he was appointed "to take care of the
fabric of St. Joseph's Church." In September of this same year he resigned as both
procurator and secretary, but continued on as "sacristan."
In this latter capacity he was granted permission July 17, 1847, by the then
provincial, Fr. George Augustine Thomas Wilson, to tour the United States and Canada to
collect money for St. Joseph's. He must have met with some success in his begging mission
because in November of this same year Fr. Vilarrasa, now prior of St. Joseph's and vicar
of the province, sent him out again. This second tour is chronicled in Fr. Anderson's
journal which bears the title, "The Journal of my Begging Expedition to the South --
A.P. Anderson, O.P." Its entries date from November 26, 1847, to July 18, 1848. It
was an extensive tour, exercising the young priest for his future missionary work. It took
him through Kentucky on into Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Missouri,
Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, New York, and Massachusetts. In most places he met
with hospitality, though his financial success appears to have been minimal. For instance,
at the start of his tour: "M 6 [Dec.] At Memphis, one o'clock in the morning. Find
the field already occupied by Revd. Fr. Jennings a Franciscan Friar from Ireland. Remained
on the warf." "W 15 [Dec.] Found begging poor business in Jackson." It was
poorer still in Dubuque, as recorded for May 6, 1848: "Visited Sinsinawa Mound,
Benton, New Diggins, & Dubuque. This last is the last place a beggar should go to. I
collected there fifty cents. Being disheartened I left the place, in disgust, in
less than 24 hours." Not all went well toward the end of the tour either. The entry
for June 2, 1848 reads: "Landed at Detroit 4 1/2P.M. [four thirty p.m.] had my
baggage carried to the Michigan Exchange. Visited the Bishop. Could no encouragement [sic]
from him in my humiliating mission. I accept however of his kind invitation to enjoy his
generous hospitality." Sometimes, though, even hospitality was lacking, as we read in
the entry for December 23, 1847. At St. Patrick's in New Orleans he asked the pastor, a
Fr. Mullin, if he might say Mass, "which request, I am sorry to be obliged to record
it, was positively refused to me on the ground that the Dominican Rite (venerable though
it be) would give scandal." But there are happier notes. So for June 11, 1848 we
read: "Preached in Tolledo. Found people remarkably generous." It seems there
was almost always some gain, however slight, as we discover in his entry for Saturday,
December 18, 1847, the eve of his preaching in the new cathedral in Natchez, Mississippi.
A Fr. Blinkinsop, a resident cleric, "is very clever [sic] to me; for having two
hats, he gave me one of them seeing that I had lost mine". Sometimes along the way he
would say Mass and preach in private homes. He also performed several baptisms. As may be
gathered from his journal he did his traveling by steamer, train, and horseback.
When Fr. Anderson began to dream of California it is impossible to say. Perhaps that
restlessness he felt back in 1845 when he expressed his desire to be part of a more
westerly province was that dream beginning to surface. At any rate it was at the beginning
of 1849 that he talked the matter over with his new provincial (since May 2, 1848), Fr.
Joseph Sadoc Alemany. In the light of subsequent events, we may imagine each firing the
imagination of the other and together laying plans for a new foundation of the Dominican
Order in the far west. Briefly Fr. Alemany recorded in the provincial register:
"February 22, 1849, Father Augustine P. Anderson is being sent to California (or
Santa Fe), where he will try to revive our missions." Alemany seems to have had in
mind Baja California to begin with, for it was there that the Dominican missions were
located and in dire need of help. But Anderson's plans as they took shape were for Alta
California, by then a territory of the United States and soon to be admitted to statehood
(Sept. 9, 1850). >>>
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