Catholic New York City

Catholic New York City celebrates the religious and cultural life f one of the largest Catholic populations in the world. The first Catholic church was founded in the 1780s, and the diocese was subsequently founded in 1808, when there were only a few priests in the entire state. The 1879 completion of the country,s best-known Catholic church, St. Patrick,s Cathedral, was a crowning moment in New York City,s Catholic history. Between 1850 and 1900, the Catholic population of New York City grew from 200,000 to more than 1.2 million due to a tremendous influx of Irish, German, Italian, Polish, and other European immigrants. Throughout the last 200 years, the city has been home to a wide range of fascinating Catholic personalities, places, and events.

Richard Panchyk is the author of 15 books, including German New York City. He has studied 19th-century immigration to New York City for the past 20 years. Using photographs culled from his extensive collection of images and from the Library of Congress, he offers a closer look at the many facets of Catholic life in New York City. Edward Cardinal Egan, former archbishop of New York, provides the foreword.