Fr. Roger, what do you do all day?
Some reflections about day to day
life as the archivist of Holy Cross Province
by Roger Mercurio, C.P.
In this article I am sharing with you what kind of requests come into our archives here in Chicago. We are often quite surprised by the range of these requests. Some are very technical; others lead us to uncover many aspects about a family, a person, an event or a building. Frequently, people presume that the life of the archivist is quite dull and most our time is occupied with old and boring documents. However, the opposite is true. With the assistance of Mrs. Toni Fabianski we find ourselves to be quite busy in the office. Likewise, we are able to correspond with some fascinating people. Some are Passionists, but many are people who are interested in our Congregation history for so many diverse reasons. What this tells us is that the material we save in the archives should be quite eclectic in nature.
When a monastery closes: During 1996 we received final papers and documents from our Cincinnati, OH Passionist community on Mt. Adams which we closed in June. We also received material from the Mater Dolorosa Passionist community in Sierra Madre, CA. The original monastery building had been hit by the earthquake of 1993 and was declared uninhabitable. In both cases we received documents that pertained to provincial business, activities of the local Passionist community and personnel. We have tried to make sure that we educate Passionists to not throw out material. While ideally we would like the material catalogued, we are aware that the priority is to save documentation. Cataloguing can always take place later.
Mount Adams, Cincinnati, OH: Father Conleth Overman, C.P. was here at the archives on March 4-6, 1996 to research material for a book he is writing about the Passionists of Mt. Adams, Cincinnati, Ohio. When he left, we allowed him (a privilege we reserve) to take some material with him to be used in this project. The completed work is STORIES OF MOUNT ADAMS PASSIONISTS. Anyone who has been to Mt. Adams would find this most interesting. At the same time, the archives also received a beautifully retyped copy of the Holy Cross Community Platea. A platea is like a daily dairy of Passionist life and ministry in the monastery. This was the work of Denize Cozartt.
Edwin Ronan, C.P. Philippine Passionist Father Gabriel Baldostamon of our Philippine Vice-Province visited the archives in late May/early June, 1996. He was seeking information about Passionist Father Edwin Ronan. Perhaps the first Passionist to visit the Philippines, Father Ronan, an American and member of Holy Cross Province, was called to the Philippines in 1937 to organize the chaplain corps of the Philippine Army. Caught there after the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, he was imprisoned for several years by the Japanese. When back here in his home province, he wrote an unpublished book on the Philippines entitled THE PHILIPPINES: YESTERDAY AND TOMORROW. We mailed Father Gabriel a copy. More and more we are finding that we must be ready to handle international requests.
Aloysius William Gregg: In July 1996 we received a fascinating request from Father Frank Cusack, C.P., superior of our Louisville Passionist community. He solicited information about an ex-Passionist who was buried in an unmarked grave in Louisville in 1915. The search for information required us to be both historian and detective. William Aloysius Gregg's name was found on the database which Brother Larry Finn, C.P. had placed on our computer, at our Generalate in Rome, of all Passionists who had entered the Congregation since the time of St. Paul of the Cross in the mid 1700s. Gregg seems to have taken vows as a Passionist but left before ordination. Later, it appears he did become a priest and founded the parish of St. Paul of the Cross in Honeoye Falls in Monroe County, New York. After some time, however, he evidently left the active priesthood. He died in St. Mary's Hospital in Louisville sometime in the late nineteenth century and was buried in the unmarked grave in St. Louis Cemetery. It was Mrs. Helen Stefano who has continued to do research on Father Gregg, who erected a monument on his grave on June 23, 1996. Last fall Mrs. Stefano called me and among other things told me that Father Gregg's mother had attended the dedication of the new church of St. Paul of the Cross which he had built in New York state in the nineteenth century. Our research shows that there are still more questions than answers, but as archivists we realize that the answers come with patience and hard work. Research takes time and some luck.
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