CUMMINGS, JEREMIAH WILLIAMS

Parish priest, writer; b. Washington, D.C., April 15, 1814; d. New York City, Jan. 4, 1866. His family were Northern Irish Protestants, who had immigrated to the U.S. and settled (c. 1782) in Washington; his maternal granduncle, Capt. Worthy Stephenson, was one of the founders of the city of Washington, and was grand marshal when Gen. George Washington laid the cornerstone of the Capitol. His mother's conversion to the Catholic Church, shortly after his birth, led to an estrangement from her family and, later, to her removal to New York. There Cummings was one of the few students in Bp. John Dubois's short-lived seminary at Nyack; later he attended the College of the Propaganda, Rome, Italy, where he was ordained Jan. 3, 1847. On his return to New York he served first as curate at old St. Patrick's Cathedral, and in November 1848 was appointed first pastor of St. Stephen's parish, where he spent the rest of his life. He made it one of the most prominent parishes in New York, wellknown for the excellence of the liturgical ceremonies and music. An accomplished linguist, writer, and speaker, he was a friend of Orestes brownson and contributed to his Review. When Cummings criticized the prevailing system of Catholic education and seminary training, a bitter controversy ensued during which New York's Abp. John Hughes replied in his noted essay "Reflections on the Catholic Press." Besides contributing to Brownson's Review, Cummings also wrote for Appleton's Encyclopedia and published Italian Legends (1859), Songs for Catholic Schools (1862), and Spiritual Progress (1865).

Bibliography: Historical Records and Studies of the U.S. Catholic Historical Society of New York 4 (1906) 100. j. g. shea, The Catholic Churches of New York (New York 1878). l. j. hunt, History of St. Stephen's Parish, 1848–1948 (New York 1948).

[f. d. cohalan]