GRIFFIN, MARTIN IGNATIUS JOSEPH

Journalist, historian; b. Philadelphia, Oct. 23, 1842;d. there, Nov. 10, 1911. Griffin's parents, Terence J. and Elizabeth (Doyle) Griffin, were immigrants from Ireland. Griffin was educated in parochial and public schools. He began his journalistic career as a contributor to Catholic newspapers. Griffin edited a Sunday school journal (1867–70) and served as assistant editor of the newly established Catholic Standard (1870–73). An energetic promoter, Griffin organized Philadelphia's first Youths' Catholic Total Abstinence Society. In 1872, he was one of the founders of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America. He was secretary of the Irish Catholic Benevolent Union for 22 years. Griffin founded and edited its I.C.B.U. Journal (1873–94), continuing its publication as Griffin's Journal until 1900. Griffin was also active as a historian and compiler of historical documents. In 1884, he founded the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. From 1886 to 1911, as proprietor and editor of the American Catholic Historical Researches, a quarterly miscellany of documents, comment, and correspondence, Griffin campaigned for authenticity in American Catholic historical writing. His works include a number of parish histories, compilations of documents, and the following books: History of Rt. Rev. Michael Egan, D.D. First Bishop of Philadelphia (1893), Commodore John Barry (1902), General Count Casimir Pulaski (1909), Stephen Moylan (1909), and Catholics and the American Revolution (1907–11). Despite occasional deficiencies of method and judgment, his work provided a documentary foundation for later historians of American Catholicism.

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