Fenwick High School - Blackfriars Yearbook (Oak Park, IL)

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Why rs thrs school named Fenwrck? One hundred and f1fty years ago a Domrnr can prrest Father Edward Domrnrc Fenwrck establrshed rn Kentucky the first house of the Order of Preachers rn thrs country He founded the f1rstCatholrc college west of the Allegheny Mountarns was the apostle of Ohro and be came the f1rst brshop of Crncrnnatr As brshop he had under hrs lurrsdrctron the Northwest Terrrtory of whrch the present State of lllrnors was a part And thrs school took hrs name Brshop Fenwrck had drstrngurshed ancestors He belonged to the srxth generatron of Amerr can Fenwrcks The f1rst one of that name was Cuthbert who came from England to Maryland wrth Lord Baltrmore s enterprrse under the rule of Cecelrus Calvert to avord the relrgrous rntol erance of England s dark penal days The Brshops father was Colonel lgnatrus Fenwrck an officer rn the Maryland Mrlrtra dur rng the Revolutronary War and a member of the Maryland Conventron to frame the state constrtutron Edward Fenwrck for whom thrs school rs named was born rn St Marys County Mary land on August 19 1768 He had f1ve brothers and two srsters Hrs educatron began rn the famrly mansron under prrvate tutors Srnce rt was necessary for a Catholrc to go to Europe for advanced educatron he was sent to the Jesurt Fathers at Lrege Belgrum In the autumn of 1784 he entered Holy Cross Englrsh Domrnr can College at Bornherm Belgrum Havrng com pleted hrs humanrtres rn 1788 he traveled on the contrnent and on September 4 of that year recerved the Domrnrcan habrt He took hrs f1rst Domrnrcan vows March 26 1790 and havrng contrnued hrs studres untrl February 1793 he was ordarned a prrest at Ghent Belgrum He remarned at Bornherm to contrne hrs studres and to teach Wrth the French antr relrgrous revolutronrsts rushrng North rn the late sprrng of 1794 rt became necessary for the Englrsh Fathers to seek refuge rn England Srnce Father Fenwrck was an Amerrcan crtrzen the college was put rn hrs name The r volutronrsts n vertheless set f1re to the college and made Fenwrck a prrsoner After many hardshrps and rmmrnent danger to hrs lrfe he f1nally reached England where he became a professor at the new Domrnrcan college rn Surrey Carshalton Father Fenwrck s heart was always wrth hrs own country Amerrca He srncerely hoped that he could establrsh the Order of Preachers rn hrs natrve land Thrs has always been my de srgn he wrote to hrs superrors rn Rome January 3 1804 to begrn wrth a school Though hrs Englrsh Provrncral Superror was actrvely reluctant to lose hrm he recerved en couragement and f1naIly the permrssron for the venture through the efforts of Father Rrchard Concannon O P then rn Rome and later the f1rst Brshop of New York And thus was set rn motron the begrnnrngs of Domrnrcan educatron and the Domrnrcan apostolate rn Amerrcan all to be credrted to an Amerrcan a man who had been rmprrsoned rn France for hrs farth a man who had to f1ght agarnst the odds of severe poverty But he and one companron Father Angrer reported trr umphantly to Brshop Carroll of Baltrmore then Amerrca s brshop yls 'W V C, glare llp-l Wiley Mjqgrlll - 0 1 ' I of fic, I ' . 1 . . . h k:2g- .F-,X ' ' ' 'I ill l U ' 'I -, D' . Il ty , 1 1 T T - Q L fre

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Page 9 The directors ond the foculty have the same hopes as the students. The Church is conducting schools to make Christian leaders who, while living for the sake of their souls' salva- tion, will make themselves needed and loved in society. The teachers look to the fulfillment of a life's dream - the success of their students. Fcither Fenwick was the leader and one of the pioneers of the Dominicans in the United States, and all the faculty members are carrying out his design, fulfilling his hopes. He was sent by Bishop Carroll to a terri- tory, at the time very promising and iust then H8055 receiving thousands of pioneers e Kentucky f to open his first house of the Order and its first school. Fathers Wilson and Tuite of the Order arrived in Kentucky in l805 under the di- rection of their new provincial superior, Fr. Fenwick. The new arrivals lived in separate private homes. Father Wilson lived with Henry Boone near St. Ann's Church in the Cartwright Creek Settlement near the pres- ent Springfield, Kentucky, and it was here that he received his tirst students f two of them, Robert and Nicholas Young. Soon afterwards other local boys and young men joined them. And so were the simple beginnings of what later became the Hrst college dedicated to St, Thomas Aquinas. Poverty prevented the quick realization of Fenwick's dream. First he had to build a religious house for the priests, temporary housing for the school, and a church for the local people. By March, l807, the new buildings, under the patronage of St. Rose of Lima, were in use. And today Dorninicans still prepare there for the priesthood, as did some of the Fenwick teachers.