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Recent Episodes
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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Betty Hutton
Betty Hutton was “The Incendiary Blonde” of Hollywood, known for her high energy and her big singing voice. But her tragic personal life was only saved by a Catholic priest.
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The Baltimore Basilica
When the Baltimore Basilica was built it was America’s first cathedral, and the result of hard work and grand planning by Archbishop John Carroll.
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Father James Coyle
Father James Coyle was a beloved pastor and a firm defender of the faith in Birmingham, Alabama. The anti-Catholicism of the KKK led to him dying a martyr.
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Charlene Richard
Charlene Richard was an ordinary girl in Louisiana. But the way she died of leukemia, and the miracles that followed, make her the “Little Cajun Saint.”
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Shrines of St. Anne
Shrines of St. Anne usually sprung up among French settlers, and are among the oldest Catholic establishments in the U.S., with dramatic stories.
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Mary Virginia Merrick
Mary Virginia Merrick was paralyzed by a fall when she was young, but she had a deep love of Christ and she founded the Christ Child Society to help mothers and children.
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John Wayne
John Wayne cultivated a rugged and tough, but family-friendly on-screen persona. But in his private life, it wasn’t until his death that he mended his ways.
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Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Charles Carroll of Carrollton was the wealthiest man in the colonies before the Revolutionary War and the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence
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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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