This unique book is not only an essential contribution to the history of the Society of Jesus in New York and in the United States; it is also a fascinating social history of the early years of Catholic institutional life in America.

Drawing for the first time on letters, memoirs, and other key documents from the Fordham archives, Hennessy opens a window on 19th century Catholic New York, with profiles of three leading Jesuit educators—Clément Boulanger, August Thébaud, and John Larkin—and the institutions they built at St. John’s College, Fordham and the college and parish of St. Francis Xavier in Manhattan. He also provides concise biographical profiles of the pioneering Jesuit priests and brothers s buried in the Fordham Cemetery.