Great Expectations, Constant Frustrations: Newly Arrived Missionaries in the New Republic, 1780–1802

Shortly before and immediately after the American War of Independence, a number of priests from Europe, mainly from Ireland and France, arrived in the United States, mostly uninvited and unexpected. Given the dearth of local priests, John Carroll, first superior and then bishop of Baltimore, employed them, despite their uneven quality. Between 1790 and 1801, another thirty-one priests (and nine women religious) came to the United States to escape the French Revolution. Most of them had been experienced priests at home, but they lacked the language of their new country and were unprepared for the frontier conditions they met, especially in New England and in the West, mainly Kentucky and Illinois. Despite Carroll's hopes, the results were often disappointing. This study highlights the fragile foundations of early U.S. Catholicism, which was shaped by inadequate resources, cultural tensions, and uneven clerical leadership.