Walter Elliott (1842–1928) was an American

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

and

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

, who authored the controversial 1891 book ''Life of Father Hecker'', a biography of the missionary

Isaac Hecker Isaac Thomas Hecker (December 18, 1819 – December 22, 1888) was an American Roman Catholic, Catholic priest and founder of the Paulist Fathers, a North American religious society of men. Hecker was originally ordained a Redemptorist priest in ...

, which sparked the Americanism controversy. Elliott was a graduate of Notre Dame, successful attorney, and Civil War veteran before joining the Paulists.

Life

Walter Elliot was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1842, the son of Judge Robert Thomas Elliott, formerly of Tipperary. He was educated in the Christian Brothers schools and at the age of twelve was sent to Notre Dame. Upon graduation, he prospected for gold around

Pikes Peak Pikes Peak is the List of mountain ranges of Colorado#Mountain ranges, highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in North America. The Ultra-prominent peak, ultra-prominent fourteener is located in Pike National Forest, ...

before returning east to Cincinnati, where he entered law school.McNamara, Par. "Father Walter Elliott, C.S.P. (1842-1928): Union Army Veteran"
''McNamara's Blog'', May 25, 2011 Elliott was admitted to the bar shortly before the outbreak of hostilities, whereupon he enlisted in the 5th Ohio Infantry. In 1862, the regiment was sent into Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. On June 9. 1862, he was captured at the

Battle of Port Republic The Battle of Port Republic was fought on June 9, 1862, in Rockingham County, Virginia, as part of Confederate Army Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's campaign through the Shenandoah Valley during the American Civil War. Port Republic w ...

but was exchanged three months later and returned to his regiment. Elliot saw action at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg,

Lookout Mountain Lookout Mountain is a mountain ridge at the northwest corner of the U.S. state of Georgia, the northeast corner of Alabama, and along the southeastern Tennessee state line in Chattanooga. Lookout Mountain was the scene of the 18th-century "La ...

and took part in the capture of Atlanta. After the death in combat of two of his brothers, he acceded to his mother's request and left the army some six months after his enlistment expired. Elliott returned to Cincinnati and resumed the practice of law. He first met

in Detroit, during one of Hecker's lecture tours. In 1868 he joined the Missionary Society of Saint Paul the Apostle and was ordained in 1872. He then set sail for California via Cape Horn, along with four other Paulist missioners. In 1894 he founded the "Cleveland Apostolate", a group of missionary priests who spoke on Catholic doctrine and practices to non-Catholics. Elliott was a close associate of Hecker's and wrote a biography of him after Hecker's death. The preface to the French translation inaccurately indicated that Hecker had supported a Catholicism that put less emphasis on authority and more on individual initiative. This drew the attention of Rome and prompted a letter from Pope Leo XIII to Cardinal Gibbons expressing concern that the Church in America should be cautious of adapting too much to American culture. Elliott served as novice master from 1899 to 1902. He followed Hecker in a type of spirituality influenced by the humanist tradition of

Francis de Sales Francis de Sales, Congregation of the Oratory, C.O., Order of Minims, O.M. (; ; 21 August 156728 December 1622) was a Savoyard state, Savoyard Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Geneva and is a saint of the Catholic Church. He became n ...

. For several years he helped to edit the Paulist monthly magazine '' The Catholic World''. In his later years, Elliott served as editor of and contributor to ''The Missionary'' magazine. He died in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, on April 18, 1928, and was laid to rest in the crypt at St. Paul the Apostle Church in New York."Excerpt from Walter Elliott's Homily on Thanksgiving, 1913"
''The Associates World'', Issue No. 13, November 2016

Works

* ''Life of Father Hecker'' (1891) * ''Sermons and Conferences of

Johannes Tauler Johannes Tauler OP ( – 16 June 1361) was a German mystic, a Catholic priest and a theologian. He belonged to the Dominican order. Tauler was known as one of the most important Rhineland mystics. He promoted a certain neo-platonist dimens ...

(1910), trans. * ''The Life of Christ'' (1903) The Catholic Book Exchange: New York. * ''Jesus Crucified'' * ''The Spiritual Life'' * contributions to the ''

Catholic Encyclopedia ''The'' ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'', also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedi ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Elliott, Walter 1842 births 1928 deaths American Roman Catholic priests Contributors to the Catholic Encyclopedia