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.
[1] Such publications began in the United States with an Ordo Divini Officii Recitandi, published at Baltimore, in 1801, by John Hayes.
Bishop Connolly" by Mathew Field, who was born in England of an Irish Catholic family and left there for New York in 1815.
[1] This Field production, in addition to the ordinary almanac calendars, had a variety of pious and instructive reading-matter with an account of the churches, colleges, seminaries, and institutions of the United States.
Dr. John Power, rector of St. Peter's church, and says in the preface that it was "intended to accompany the Missal with a view to facilitate the use of the same".
[1] In 1834 Fielding Lucas of Baltimore took up the idea and brought out The Metropolitan Catholic Calendar and Laity's Directory for that year, to be published annually.
In this publication and its various successors the title Directory is used in its purely secular meaning, as the issues include no ecclesiastical calendar or Ordo.
In the issue of 1845 there is inserted a map of the United States, "prepared at much expense to exhibit at a glance the extent and relative situation of the different dioceses", with a table of comparative statistics, 1835 to 1845.
It made a volume of more than 600 pages and gave lists of the clergy in the United States Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, and Australasia, with diocesan statistics.
[1] The Wiltzius Catholic Directory, Almanac and Clergy List has reports for all dioceses in the United States Canada, Alaska, Cuba, Sandwich Islands, Porto Rico, Philippine Islands, Newfoundland, England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, together with statistics of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Belgium, Costa Rica, Guatemala, British Honduras, Nicaragua, San Salvador, German Empire, Japan, Luxemburg, The United States of Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Oceanica, South Africa, The United States of Brazil, Curaçao, Dutch Guiana, Switzerland, and the West Indies.
[1] In the almanac for 1837 it is noted, concerning the statistics, that "the numbers marked with an asterisk are not given as strictly exact, though it is believed they approximate to the truth, and are as accurate as could be ascertained from the statements forwarded to the editor from the several dioceses".
Archbishop Glennon of St. Louis was appointed a special census official by the Government for this purpose, and under his direction an enumeration of the Catholics of every parish in the United States was made.
They have a number of illustrations of local and historical interest, such as a series of portraits of the Bishops of Quebec in the issue for 1908, in commemoration of the centenary celebrations.