Catholic Directory

Catholic Directories are various publications and reference works about or produced for the Catholic Church.

The earliest English attempt at anything of the sort seems to have been a little Catholic Almanac, which appeared for three or four years in the reign of James II (see The Month, vol. CXI, 1908). This was a mere calendar of feasts.

The Irish Catholic Directory and Almanac seems to have existed under various names since 1837 or earlier. It was first called "A Complete Catholic Directory", and then, in 1846, "Battersby's Registry", from the name of the publisher. For Scotland, though the Scottish missions are included in the "Catholic Directory" published in London, there is also a separate "Catholic Directory for the Clergy and Laity of Scotland" which began under a slightly different name in 1868.

Catholic Directories also exist for the Australian and Canadian provinces, and occasionally for separate dioceses, e.g. the Diocese of Birmingham, England, possesses an "Official Directory" of its own.

There were two Roman handbooks of a character somewhat analogous to Directories, which supplied names and details regarding the Catholic hierarchy throughout the world and especially regarding the cardinals, the Roman Congregations and their personnel, the prelates and camerieri, etc., in attendance upon the papal court. The first of these, called since 1872 "La Gerarchia Cattolica e la Famiglia Pontificia", was first published in 1716 and was long familiarly known as "Cracas" from the name of the publisher. Officially, the early numbers were simply called "Notizie per l'Anno 1716, etc." (see Moroni, Dizionario, XX, 26 sqq.). The other work, similar in character but somewhat more ample in its information, appeared from 1898 under the title "Annuario Ecclesiastico". The "Directorium Chori", a work originally compiled by Guidetti in 1582, possessed a quasi-official character and was often reprinted. It was intended for the use of the hebdomadarius and cantors in collegiate churches, and is quite different in character from the works considered above.

Such publications began in the United States with an "Ordo Divini Officii Recitandi", published at Baltimore, in 1801, by John Hayes. It had none of the directory or almanac features. "The Catholic Laity's Directory to the Church Service with an Almanac for the year", an imitation of the English enterprise, was the next, in 1817. It was published in New York with the "permission of the Right Rev. Bishop Connolly" by Mathew Field, who was born in England of an Irish Catholic family and left there for New York in 1815. He died at Baltimore, 1832. His son, Joseph M. Field, was six years old when he arrived in New York, and became a prolific writer, dying at Mobile in 1856. Joseph's daughter, Kate Field, was later the well-known author and lecturer. Though both were baptized, neither was a professed Catholic.

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