Edward Dominic Fenwick Papers 1803-1832: Founding American Dominican Friar and Bishop (review)

Although the outline of Edward Dominic Fenwick's life is quite clear, yet his quiet and unassuming character has left him a somewhat elusive person. He was born at his family's estate in rural Maryland, the son of Ignatius Fenwick, a gentleman-farmer, and Sarah Taney, both members of that relatively small but extremely influential group of Anglo-American Catholics descended from the settlers of Lord Baltimore's predominantly Catholic colony. Edward studied at the English Dominican College in Bornheim, Belgium, and was ordained a priest in 1793. After teaching in Belgium and England for eleven years, he returned to America in 1804 to establish the Dominican Order in this country.

In 1806 Bishop Carroll sent Fenwick to Kentucky, where the need for priests was great and where Fenwick's family inheritance enabled him to establish St. Rose Priory. In 1816 Fenwick moved from the now well established St. Rose Priory in Kentucky to Somerset, Ohio, where he established his Ohio base.

In 1819 Bishop Benedict Flaget of Bardstown, Kentucky, wrote to Rome that the State of Ohio had three permanent congregations and from 250 to 300 Catholic families scattered throughout the State and that two Dominican priests, Rev. Mr. Fenwick and his nephew, Rev. Mr. Nicholas Young, were serving them. Bishop Flaget went on to recommend that Ohio be made a separate diocese with its own bishop. On June 19, 1821, documents establishing the diocese of Cincinnati and appointing Edward D. Fenwick its first bishop were issued in Rome. Eleven years later, during his annual visitation of his diocese, Fenwick fell victim to the cholera epidemic and died in a hotel room in Wooster, Ohio. By the time John Martin Henni arrived from nearby Canton to give his bishop the last sacraments, he found him already buried because of the great fear of contagion.

In 1920 Vincent F. O'Daniel, O.P., in the as yet only biography of Fenwick, quite ably added many details to this brief outline. Now Luke Tancrell, O.P., has collected all of Fenwick's extant papers in a substantial work that will allow Fenwick to become better appreciated and will enable historians to write more comprehensive studies of the Church in the Midwest and of the Dominican Order in the United States.

The papers which Tancrell has collected are mostly letters, including reports about his diocese and religious order to members of the Roman Curia, appeals for aid to members of the European royalty and nobility, and many letters to other American bishops concerning pastoral questions and an exchange of news about their dioceses. The papers also contain other documents, including pastoral letters, land deeds, promissory notes, and Fenwick's Last Will and Testament. Following the Table of Contents, Tancrell provides a brief synopsis of each paper. Introductory essays provide valuable commentary. The footnotes are clear and informative. Unfortunately, constraints of space required that documents written in other languages are given here only in Tancrell's English translation. This work should become an important resource for American Catholic historians.