St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore: The Story of a People and Their Home

St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore: The Story of a People and Their Home. By Thomas W. Spalding and Kathryn M. Kuranda. (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society. 1995. Pp. x, 299. $24.95.)

Founded in 1840, the parish of St. Vincent de Paul has continually served the people of Baltimore for more than 150 years. In a remarkable manner its history, especially its architectural history, mirrors the larger history of Catholicism in the United States. In the early nineteenth century Catholicism in Baltimore still evidenced a very patrician quality reminiscent of the era of Archbishop John Carroll. St. Vincent parish was a good example of this. Some of the city's more prominent citizens were members of the board of trustees. At the first auction of pews the mayor of Baltimore purchased the most expensive pew in the church for $610; numerous others of the mercantile elite class also paid similar sizable sums for choice seats in the church. The music of Mozart and Haydn enhanced the celebration of Sunday Mass,...