Loyola University Chicago - Loyolan Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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Sign Me- Just Father Mertz . Ti' .4 this-Q51 ll Ground-breaking for Madonna Della Strada Fr. James J. Mertz, S.J. died peacefully Monday, January 29, at 10:50 pm after a long illness. Fr. Mertz was born in Toledo, Ohio, in-1882. On August 31, 1900, he entered the Society of the Jesuits after gradua- tion from Canisius High School in Buffalo. He was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest June 30, 1915 and completed his seminary studies at St. Louis University in 1916. He taught the Classics in both high school and college for ten years, four of them at St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, before joining the small staff who founded Loyola's College of Arts and Sciences when it reached its new home, the present Lake Shore Campus in Rogers Park, in 1922. Fr. Mertz had been the sole survivor of that original faculty for i many years. E For fifty years he taught the Classics at Loyola tmostly Latin Literature, graduate and undergraduatej. He also iserved as chairman of the department sfrom 1929 until 1960. He was a past president of the Chicago Classical Club gfrom 1940 to 1942 and of the Illinois 5Classical Conference from 1941 until 21945. As well as these activities, Fr. gMertz organized the Pi Alpha Lambda I fraternity. Q A small chapel in Rome where Saint llgnatius and the first Jesuits used to fgather bore the name 'Madonna Della 55irada,' translated as 'Our Lady of the gtWay.' When the Pope granted the Jesuits their first chapel, the tiny . Madonna Della Strada was kept as the p- core of the larger church. These first Jesuits built around it, enveloping it 5? within the new and larger Church of In 1925 Father Mertz began, single- handedly, to rally financial support to build a new Madonna Della Strada Chapel for Loyola's students on the lakefront. This venture was completed in 1937. In 1975, at ninety-three, he published a paperback explanation of the chapel's art. In the 1920s and 1930s, Fr. Mertz ranked as one of the most sought-after preachers and retreat-masters in the Midwest. In 1926 he preached at the International Eucharistic Congress held in Soldiers Field. Even in his nineties he could still hold a congregation in rapt attention. His voice remained remark- ably strong until death neared. The duration of his physical and mental strength was phenomenal. He taught classes at the Lake Shore Campus until he was ninety years old. And, according to Fr. Donald J. Hayes, Vice-President-Campus Minstry, 'he never forgave Fr. Baumhart for making him leave.' Well into his eighties he was the first swimmer to plunge into Lake Michigan's chilly waters at Loyola. He swam there regularly until last summer. Fr. Mertz also cared for all of the gardens behind Madonna Della Strada and the Jesuit Residence until last spring. Three or four years ago, at a party in Mertz Hall, when students asked him if he re- members their fathers, he remembered their father and their grandfathers, what they looked like, and where they were seated in his classes. In his early nineties he suffered a fractured hip, but even at that he volunteered to do chaplain work at the hospital during his stay. Fr. Mertz walked through the recently- built residence hall bearing his name on the Lake Shore Campus and commented on its messy appearance. He began to clean it up. If something had his name on it, he did not want it to be a mess, according to Fr. Hayes. His intellectual powers and interests, especially his memory and his taste for serious reading, amazed his colleagues. The ninety-six year old man 'exhausted everyone...no one could keep up' with him, Fr. Hayes related. With the various changes in the Church after Vatican II, Fr. Mertz reportedly adapted easier than many of those clergymen twenty or thirty years younger than he. In 1973, at the age of ninety-one, he traveled to Rome with a group from the Loyola Medical Center and met Pope Paul VI along with the Jesuit General. In early December of 1978, however, his leg weakened until he was confined to a wheelchair. But Fr. Mertz still said mass every day until one week before his death when he became too weak. After that, he satisfied his devotion to the Mass by having it said in his room. Until his death, Fr. Mertz constantly teased two of the faculty nurses who cared for him. When he was fed soup --his last nourishment-- by Anita Butler Cone of the nursesj, he mumbled something incoherent. When those present finally deciphered what he said, it was: 'you're supposed to take the soup out of the side of the spoon.' The humility of this great man was evidenced by a letter he wrote to junior Robert Moen. Moen commented it was one of the sincerest, well written letters he ever recieved, and it was signed-- Q Jesus. a beautiful Baroque Style Church- When he was eighty-nine years old, 'Just Father Mertz'.

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