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Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk was born in North Dakota, where his parents instilled a strong Catholic faith. The leader of The Lawrence Welk Show was a daily communicant.
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Father Augustus Tolton
Fr. Augustus Tolton was the first black priest in American history. He was born a slave, eventually studied in Rome, and was a beloved pastor.
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Father Francis Duffy
Father Francis Duffy was a seminary professor, chaplain to the Fighting 69th during World War I, and was a parish priest in New York City. He is memorialized in Times Square.
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St. Frances Xavier Cabrini
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini overcame odds her entire life to make a huge difference for Italian immigrants in America, through trust in God’s providence, and her own tenacity
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Wizard Clip
After the death of a stranger, manifestations of demonic possession required an exorcism by Fr. Prince Gallitzin in a place known as Wizard Clip.
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El Santuario de Chimayo
El Santuario de Chimayo in northern New Mexico is the largest pilgrimage site in the U.S. Many miracles are attributed to the holy dirt found on the site.
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Dom Virgil Michel, OSB
Virgil Michel was a Benedictine monk who spearheaded the liturgical movement in the U.S. and believed that liturgy should be at the center of catechesis and social justice.
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St. Kateri Tekakwitha
St. Kateri Tekakwitha lost both of her parents to smallpox when she was four, and she was permanently scarred by it. She remained a virgin and became Catholic at 19.
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Orestes Brownson: His American Thinking
Orestes Brownson, the first American Catholic intellectual, had strong ideas about Catholics’ place in American political life, as well as about slavery.
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Orestes Brownson Part 1: Biography and Conversion
Orestes Brownson was a major intellectual and a Catholic convert. He was raised Christian, but it took 41 years before he found his way to the Catholic faith.
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The Land of the Cross-Tipped Churches
In the 19th century, German Catholics immigrated to western Ohio where the Precious Blood fathers built many cross-tipped churches in a small area
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Vince Lombardi
Vince Lombardi coached the NFL Green Bay Packers to wins in Super Bowl I and II. He went to daily Mass and his Catholic faith formed his coaching.
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Tom and Noelle do a great job of telling the story of American Catholicism. Each episode is well researched and conveyed in a lively and interesting way. Highly recommend!
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Find The Stories from Your State!
Sharing the stories of the many and wondrous Catholic parts of American history.
Catholics around the globe remember and honor great men and women from all over the place, and all through the ages. We are a religion of tradition, a religion which remembers events, and cherishes places where those events took place. So many of these places are in Europe, the Middle East, the north of Africa, and east Asia, where great missionaries and great teachers spread the Gospel. Men like Peter and Paul, Augustine of Hippo, Francis Xavier, Patrick, Francis, Thomas Aquinas, Jerome, and so many more. And there are women like Teresa of Avila, Gertrude, Catherine of Siena, Mary Magdalene, Bridget, Veronica, Clare, and many, many more.
These men and women, and the things they did, are rightly venerated the world over.
But we Catholics in America have a remarkable history of our own. The men and women who brought the faith to these shores, who helped it to spread, who poured themselves out for Christ, all have stories and give examples that we owe it to ourselves to come to know.
And the story of the growth of the faith here is interwoven with the stories of our national history. In fact, Catholics were already active across much of the continent long before the founding of the United States.
American Catholics played significant roles in the founding of the United States, and then the growth and development of her laws and national customs. Catholics founded a number of her great cities. Catholics have been important members of every aspect of American life from government to popular culture, plus education, health care, athletics, civil rights activism, and more.
But far too few Catholics know these things.
This American Catholic History podcast exists to help introduce people to these remarkable men and women, the incredible events, and the sacred places that are our own right here in America.
Celebrating the Catholic History of America!
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