“From the Archives” Father John F. Aiken

Father John F. Aiken, S.J., served as pastor at Saint Mary from 1846 to 1850. A native of Jonesboro, TN, he had planned to become a Protestant minister. While studying at Georgetown, he became a Catholic, joined the Jesuits in 1837 and eventually was ordained by Archbishop Samuel Eccleston, fifth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Father Aiken’s family reportedly disapproved of his decision to embrace “papal idolatry.” His faith must have been contagious, however, since Father Aiken had the great and unusual privilege of assisting the conversion of his entire family to Catholicism. Subtle hints of antipathy between Alexandria’s Catholic and non-Catholics around that time can be found in the old Saint Mary parish records. Several baptisms recorded by Father Aiken are of infants or children in danger of death, secretly baptized because their parents were Protestants.

Charity in the 19th century was left mostly to private volunteer societies and individuals. Saint Mary, with its numerous benevolent groups, played an important role in caring for the area’s poor and indigent residents. During his time as Saint Mary’s pastor, Father Aiken worked actively with the poor, including those who lived in the city’s “poor house,” as evidenced in several of his entries in church records:

April 25, 1846. A woman named Hooper when dangerously ill was baptized conditionally at the Poor House.

            March 22, 1847. Nancy Garlick died at the poor’s house of which she had been an inmate about 40 years.

Father Aiken also carried the Word of God to Alexandria’s residents in jail:

A colored man Samuel Humphries, about 21 yrs., was baptized in prison.

Church laws were strictly observed in the 19th century. The following burial entry by Father Aiken illustrates their importance:

November 9, 1850. Jno. Gallagher, married by J. Aiken 3 yrs. ago. Was buried out of the Catholic burial ground for not being complied with the Paschal duties.

Father Aiken’s tenure at Saint Mary was cut short when ill health forced him to step down as pastor in 1850.

– Kitty Guy, Parish Historian

In 2020, to commemorate the 225th anniversary of our parish, we started “From the Archives” as a weekly feature online and in our bulletin to spotlight the history of Saint Mary’s. Due to its popularity, we are continuing the series in 2021. An archive of the features is located here.