Jeremiah Williams Cummings

Jeremiah Williams Cummings (April 1814, in Washington, D.C., U.S.A. – January 4, 1866 at New York) was an American Roman Catholic priest, known as a preacher and writer.

Life

His father's death caused his mother to move to New York in his boyhood, and he was there accepted as an ecclesiastical student by Bishop Dubois, who sent him to the College of the Propaganda at Rome to make his theological studies. Afterwords he returned to New York, where he was assigned as one of the assistants at St. Patrick's Cathedral. He there proved himself as linguist, writer, and musician, and a popular preacher and lecturer.

In 1848 Bishop Hughes selected him to found St. Stephen's parish, New York, and to erect a church. Under the administration of Dr. Cummings St. Stephen's, which he had completed in March, 1854, became a fashionable and frequented church in New York, its sermons and music making it a local attraction. He continued as its pastor till his death.

Controversy

Cummings was the intimate friend and disciple of Orestes A. Brownson, the philosopher and reviewer. He was instrumental in having Brownson change his residence from Boston to New York, took charge of his lecture arrangements, and wrote frequent contributions for the Brownson's Review. "It was often complained of in Brownson", says his son (Middle Life, Detroit, 1899, p. 132), "that he was lacking in policy, and no doubt he was in the habit of plain speaking; but Cummings was more so, and some of the most violent attacks on the editor and his 'Review' were occasioned by unpalatable truths plainly stated by Cummings".

Cummings was one of the leaders in a group of priests and laymen, who were opposed to what they called the "Europeanizing" of the Church in the United States by the foreign-born teachers, to the system of teaching in vogue in the Catholic colleges and seminaries, and who were in favour of conciliating those outside the Church by the use of milder polemics. In an article on "Vocations to the Priesthood" that Cummings contributed to Brownson's Review of October, 1860, he severely criticized the management and mode of instruction in Catholic colleges and seminaries which he styled "cheap priest-factories". This aroused a bitter controversy, and brought out one of the noted essays by Archbishop Hughes, his "Reflections on the Catholic Press".

Works

He was also a contributor to "Appleton's Encyclopedia" and published in New York:

• "Italian Legends" (1859);
• "Songs for Catholic Schools" (1862);
• "Spiritual Progress" (1865);
• "The Silver Stole".

It is suggested in various sources that Cummings wrote the beloved Marian Hymn, Immaculate Mary, originally 'Hail Virgin of Virgins.'

References

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Jeremiah Williams Cummings". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.