Edward Fenwick

Edward Fenwick was born on August 19, 1768, on the family plantation on the Patuxent River, in the British Province of Maryland, to Colonel Ignatius Fenwick and Sarah Taney. Colonel Fenwick later became a military officer during the American Revolution. The Fenwicks were one of the early Catholic families of Maryland, the starting point of Catholicism in the American colonies.

During the mid-1700's, the Society of Jesus served the Catholic families in the province and some family members joined the order. Edward's first cousin, Benedict J. Fenwick, a Jesuit priest, later became the second bishop of Boston; another cousin, Enoch Fenwick also a Jesuit priest, later became president of Georgetown College.

As there were no Catholic institutions of learning in the American colonies, many wealthy Catholic families sent their sons abroad to study. The Fenwick family sent 15-year-old Edward to the Dominican Holy Cross College in Bornem, near Antwerp in what was then the Austrian Netherlands. Edward's uncle was a teacher there. The school was under the jurisdiction of the English Province of Dominicans.In 1788, Fenwick joined the Dominican Order and entered their seminary at Bornem as a theological student, choosing the name, "Dominic". He took his solemn vows to the Dominicans in March 1790.

In 1805, Fenwick traversed the entire Mississippi Valley, looking for a central location to serve as a headquarters for his missionary work. He was accompanied by Angier, Reverend Samuel Thomas Wilson and Reverend William Raymond Tuite.Fenwick decided in 1806 to purchase a 500-acre plantation near Springfield, Kentucky. At that time, Kentucky had a small Catholic population that had migrated there during the late 18th century from Maryland. To help build this venture, Fenwick sold some enslaved African-Americans he owned at the family plantation in Maryland. He use the sale proceeds to purchase enslaved people in Kentucky, who he used to help build his community.

Fenwick began construction of a priory and a church almost immediately; the buildings were first inhabited in December 1806, but not completed until 1807. Saint Rose Priory was named for Rose of Lima, a Peruvian sister who was the first native of the Americas to be canonized. In February 1807, the Dominican Order approved the erection of the new American Province of Saint Joseph. At Fenwick's request, Wilson was appointed prior.

As an itinerant preacher visiting Catholic families in Kentucky, Kenwick faced many difficulties. He frequently had to swim his horse across swollen streams to reach a mission. On occasion, Fenwick camped out in the forests, which were then populated by bears and wolves. Like other missionaries, he faced the strain of loneliness and health problems caused by overwork and exposure to the weather. While riding from place to place, Fenwick prayed his Breviary, often fasting in anticipation of celebrating Mass once he reached his destination. He would ride forty miles out of his way to visit an isolated family.

In 1808, Fenwick moved on to Ohio, where he ministered to Irish and German families, many of the latter knowing little English. In Kentucky, the Saint Rose of Lima Church was dedicated on December 25, 1809, and the Saint Rose Priory became the first Catholic educational institution west of the Allegheny Mountains. In 1817, Fenwick was joined in Ohio by his newly ordained nephew, Reverend Nicholas Dominic Young, OP. The two priests built Saint Joseph's Church in Somerset, the first Catholic church in Ohio, on December 6, 1818. A second log church, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, was soon erected in Lancaster. A third was begun in Cincinnati, at the suggestion of Bishop Flaget, who visited the city in the spring of 1818.