 Fr. Henry James Aerden, OP
One of the Dominican Province's most interesting early foreign additions during the 1850s
was Fr. Henry Aerden, O.P., of the Province of St. Rose in Belgium. He was
born in that country on May 15, 1823, made his religious profession in September, 1841,
and was ordained a priest at Ghent on December 20, 1846 after an indult from the pope for
being so young.
Soon after ordination he accepted the offer of Bishop Modeste DeMers
of Vancouver Island to join his diocese. After several years of ministry mainly
among the Indians, Aerden had unspecified difficulties with the bishop which were serious
enough to get him suspended. He came to California on February 28, 1851, and for
several years worked, as a layman, in the mines at Marysville and Grass Valley.
One
Sunday, after the Mass he was attending, he introduced himself to the celebrant, Fr.
Thomas J. Dalton, and corrected a point of doctrine in his sermon. Evidently Dalton
was impressed with Aerden (if not with the correction!) for he wrote to Archbishop Alemany
and told him of the suspended priest. Alemany invited Aerden to return to the
exercise of his priesthood and, the invitation accepted, the suspension was lifted.
Fr. Vilarrasa welcomed him back into the Order in Benicia on November 4, 1856. From
then on his name appears frequently in the documentation and records of the congregation,
indicating an active and fruitful ministry, both internal to the Order and external in the
archdiocese at large.
He was such a good missionary because he spoke French, Spanish
and German, as well as English. After a time in Benicia, he was put in charge of St. Brigid's parish in San Francisco, then far on the outskirts of the city and built the
first church there. From 1864 to 1874, he was the pastor of St. Francis church,
which is now the Shrine. He then moved to Martinez, where he built the church.
He died of a stroke in 1896 as the much loved first resident pastor of St. Catherine's in
Martinez after long service there.
Source
Parmisano, Stan Fabian, OP, Mission West: The Western Dominican Province 1850-1966.
Oakland: Western Dominican Province, 1997.
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