To Dwell in the House of the Lord – Charles Maguire, O.F.M - A Review
By
By James Wudarczyk

Anyone who ever walked through Saint Mary’s Roman Catholic Cemetery in Lawrenceville probably noticed an imposing statue of a priest in vestments standing on top of a pillar. The marker honors Reverend Charles Maguire, a pioneer Franciscan priest in Pittsburgh. Considering the fact that Franciscans take the vow of poverty, it might strike some as unusual that Father Maguire had such an elaborate marker. However, thanks to the book To Dwell in the House of the Lord – Charles Maguire, O.F.M, by the Most Reverend John B. McDowell, Auxiliary Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, the mystery of how a humble man came to possess such an elaborate memorial has been put to rest. McDowell, who has established an enviable record of publishing more than fifty books on literature, education, and history, has successfully resurrected much Pittsburgh history that would otherwise have been lost if not for his untiring efforts and dedication. The members of the Lawrenceville Historical Society owe a great debt of gratitude to Bishop McDowell for documenting the lives of Father Maguire and the three Roman Catholic bishops buried in Saint Mary’s Cemetery.

Like McDowell’s other books, To Dwell in the House of the Lord – Charles Maguire, O.F.M.I., is an easy-to-read book, crammed with facts. His Excellency recreates the times and environment that shaped his subject. For Maguire, the events included growing up in an Ireland still subject to the harsh penal laws against Catholics and the rise of the missionary Church in America. McDowell contends there were discrepancies regarding Maguire’s birth. Some sources set the year at 1768, while others contend it was 1770. Father Maguire arrived in America in 1817 and was credited with participating in the shaping of the Catholic Church in Pittsburgh and the western part of Pennsylvania. Furthermore, he personally planned and erected the first Saint Paul’s Church. According to McDowell, “Father Charles Maguire was an outstanding priest and Franciscan missionary who blessed this area in countless ways, especially as a scholar, and spiritually as a great pastor, teacher and Catholic leader. Academically, he served his community as Dean of the Greek Department of the Pittsburgh Academy, later the University of Pittsburgh.”

McDowell portrays Father Maguire as a defender of his faith. His writings on apologetics, or a treatise defending a religious position, show that Maguire advocated the traditional Catholic positions on the Blessed Trinity, the divinity of the Holy Spirit, the incarnation of Christ, and Transubstantiation or the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Also, using Scripture, he refuted the insulting claims by critics of the Papacy that the Pope was the Anti-Christ. Although the body of Maguire’s writing was relatively slim, McDowell asserts the sampling “gives us some idea of what tremendous knowledge he possessed and how this scholar was a substantial pillar for the early (Catholic) church in Pittsburgh.”

Maguire succumbed to cholera in July 1833. In the span of approximately sixteen years, the missionary priest exerted a tremendous influence on promoting Catholicism in Pittsburgh. His last great endeavor was building Saint Paul’s, which would eventually become the cathedral once the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh was created.

As for the monument in Saint Mary’s Cemetery, McDowell notes that Father Charles Maguire died on July 17, 1833 at the age of 65 (assuming that he was born in 1768 as the author does). He never recovered from the highly contagious cholera. His body was interred in a crude vault on Nunnery Hill, the convent grounds of the Poor Clare Sisters. Now known as Mount Alvernia, Maguire remained in Millvale from July 17, 1833 until May 24, 1834 when the priest’s remains were moved to a vault in Saint Paul’s Church (then located in downtown Pittsburgh). After a fire destroyed Saint Paul’s on May 6, 1851, Maguire’s body was once again moved. This time it was moved to Lawrenceville’s Saint Mary’s Cemetery, where it rested beneath a very plain marker. Then in 1899, Bishop Phelan honored Maguire “as a great Catholic pioneer, priest, Franciscan missionary and scholar.”