Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.
HECKER, ISAAC THOMAS. – Preacher, publicist, founder of the Paulists. Born to German emigrants in New York on 18 Dec. 1819, died there on 22 Dec. 1888. H. received no religious education, for his father professed no religion and his mother, originally Lutheran, had become a Methodist. At the age of eleven he worked in a baker’s shop. Studious, he read extensively. Received into the Church by Dr. McCloskey (later a cardinal) in Jan. 1844, he entered the Redemptorist novitiate at St. Trond (Belgium) in Sept. 1845. Of an impulsive nature, at the student house in Wittem (Holland) he manifested strange mystical phenomena. Ordained priest at Clapham (London) on 23 Oct. 1849 by the Vicar Apostolic Wiseman (the future cardinal), he returned to America in Jan. 1850, where he carried on an intense and fruitful apostolate. In New York his gifts as a preacher won him wide influence among Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
The Redemptorists, established in America since 1832, were at that time chiefly occupied with German-speaking emigrants; H., together with some American-born confreres, wished to found a purely American house. He therefore made (Aug. 1857) a journey to Rome to confer with the General, who expelled him (29 Aug.) from the Congregation because H. had made the journey at his own expense and without permission. H. appealed to the Holy See; the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, by decree of 6 Mar. 1858, released H. and his companions from their vows, expressly permitting them to devote themselves to missionary work in their own country under the guidance of the bishops. Thus was born, in 1859, the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle in the State of New York, commonly called the “Paulists,” which remained, as did H. himself, always on excellent terms with the Redemptorists. H. was elected superior and remained so until 1871.
He promoted the apostolate of the press, founding the Catholic Publication Society, The Catholic World. He wrote three works, among them The Church and the Age. He was at once a fervent American and an inflexible Catholic. Some attempted to defame him when Leo XIII, taking occasion from the preface to the French version by F. Klein (1897) of H.’s Life, published by W. Elliott (2nd ed., New York 1894), issued his Testem benevolentiae (22 Jan. 1899), which condemned “Americanism” (q.v.), the heresy that adapts Catholic doctrine to the modern American way of life and, in practice, exalts natural virtue over the supernatural. The absolute orthodoxy and fidelity of H. to the Holy See were widely vindicated by the American bishops and many others.
(from H. Elliott, Le p. H., Paris 1857)
HECKER, ISAAC THOMAS – Portrait, with autograph signature.
His freedom from prejudice, his excellent style, and his entire life won him great influence. He was among the first to advocate for the admission of Catholic students, with appropriate guarantees, to Oxford and Cambridge. In many respects, he recalls the character of St. Cuthbert and St. Bede. Notable among his works are: *Retreat* (1894), *The Christian Inheritance* (1896), *The Light of Life* (1899), *A Bishop and His Flock* (1903), and *Lex Levitarum* (1905).
BIBL.: J. A. Wilson, *The Life of Bishop H. L. Londa*, 1930; *Dublin Review*, Apr. 1931, Apr. 1936. Enrico Rope
