Musty, Dusty & Very Rare
by Roger Mercurio, C. P.
On Friday, April 21, 1995, the Chicago Tribune ran an article entitled "Priest's find: Musty, dusty and very rare." The opening paragraph reads: "When the Rev. Sebastian MacDonald discovered 48 dusty boxes of books in the attic at his monastery, he had no inkling of the treasure he had just found"
In these boxes were over 400 old theological and historical books dating from the sixteenth century to the 1920s. About ten years ago Fr. Sebastian (former provincial and presently superior of the Immaculate Conception Monastery in Chicago) cleaned these books, had them indexed by novice Robert Chucka, and safely boxed. They were then stored in the annex to the monastery's library.
From time to time the question arose as to what should be done with these volumes. Fr. Sebastian contacted the Newberry Library in Chicago. Mr. Paul Saenger, curator of rare books and collection development librarian, visited the monastery and was most interested in this collection. Fr. Sebastian formally offered the books to the Newberry Library as a gift from our monastery. In February 1994, this gift was accepted and the books were transferred to the Newberry Library in the near north area just west of State Street.
After Mr. Saegner had time to make a serious review of the books, he clearly saw how valuable this collection was. He expressed his intention to acknowledge this gift at a public reception. This was held at the Newberry Library on Wednesday, November 30, 1994. Cardinal Bernardin honored the Newberry Library and the Passionists by attending this reception together with officers of Loyola University and Mundelein College.
At this point we might ask: what is this collection? where did it come from? how did it fmd its way to the attic of the Immaculate Conception Passionist Monastery of Chicago? Please join me as I begin the search to fmd answers to these questions.
What is this collection? This collection consists of 435 old and rare books. There are works of the patristic, medieval and counter-reformation periods; books on dogmatic, sacramental, moral theology, canon law, bibles and commentaries, sermons and liturgy and church history, United States and Chicago history, literature and art, etc.
Among the old books are: The Complete Chronicles ofAncient Times printed in Strausburg, 1490; St. Augustine De Civitate Dei, 1955; three volumes of the Works of Hugh of St. Victor, 1588, in black and red ink; Complete Works of Ephraem of Syria, printed in 1603. There are others printed in the seventeenth century and many in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and a few in this century.
There are bound copies of the Boston Pilot from December 1843 to 1846. There are also fourteen volumes of Brownson 's Quarterly Review, 1845 to 1858. Another set is by Laurentio Beyerlinck entitled, Magnum Theatrum Vitae Humanae, (a compendium of poetry, philosophy and theology) in eight volumes printed in 1665. There are 25 volumes by and about John Dewey, our Fr. Joseph Mary O'Leary's, C.P., personal collection.
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