Recent Episodes
St. John Neumann
Born in Prachatice, Bohemia, St. John Neumann was the fourth bishop of Philadelphia and a Redemptorist. He was known for humility, and deep concern for souls.
The Carmelites of Port Tobacco
In 1790 four Carmelite nuns established a monastery at Port Tobacco, Maryland, making it the first women’s religious community in the new United States
Frank Capra: The GOAT of Directors?
Frank Capra made deeply Catholic films, even when rarely using religious imagery and themes. Learn why we call him the “GOAT” of directors
Fr. Aloysius Schmitt, Hero of Pearl Harbor
Navy Chaplain Father Aloysius Schmitt had just finished Mass aboard the USS Oklahoma when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He died helping men to escape.
Bishop Waters and the Integration of Catholic North Carolina
Bishop Vincent Waters led the integration of Catholic North Carolina as bishop of the Diocese of Raleigh before the Civil Rights Act passed the U.S. Congress.
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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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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