Hecker, Isaac Thomas (1819-1888)

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Isaac Thomas Hecker was born of German immigrants on 18 December 1819 in New York and died on 22 December 1888, in the same place. He was a Catholic convert and priest and the founder of the Paulist Fathers (Missionary Society of Saint Paul the Apostle). He was ordained in London in 1849. Hecker was active on the lecture circuit, trying to evangelize Americans to convert to Catholicism. Both Questions of the Soul (1855) and  Aspirations of Nature (1857) are polemical tracts purporting to show the superiority of the Catholic faith. He also founded and edited the magazine The Catholic World.

At the urging of Orestes Brownson, he joined Brook Farm in early 1843 but left after six months, to join the ethical vegan community at Fruitlands. In February 1843, Bronson Alcott wrote to Hecker, inviting him to join them, describing the community as "desirous of access to the channels and fountains of wisdom and purity; and we are not without hope that Providence will use us progressively for beneficial effects in the great work of human regeneration, and the restoration of the highest life on earth" (letter 15 February 1843). Hecker moved to Fruitlands in July 1843 but in August he left to return to New York taking with him, however, the diet he had adopted at Fruitlands.                                                      c. 1860. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In his diary entry, dated 30 August 1843, Hecker notes:

PUBLICATIONS

Aspirations of Nature. New York: James B. Kirker, 1857.
https://archive.org/details/a587173700heckuoft

Questions of the Soul. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1855.
https://archive.org/details/questionsofsoul00heck/page/n5/mode/2up

Last updated on February 21st, 2024

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