James Huntington

While he was a child his father, a Unitarian minister, converted to the Episcopal Church, and in quick succession was ordained deacon and priest, and then consecrated Bishop of Central New York.

After completing studies at St. John's Academy, Manlius, New York, where he was head boy in 1873, James went to Harvard, as had his father.

Soon after his ordination, Huntington attended a retreat at St. Clement's Church in Philadelphia and began to feel called to the monastic life.

Rather than join the Society of St. John the Evangelist which had established a foundation in Boston ten years before, Huntington decided to found an American congregation, the Order of the Holy Cross with two companions, Robert Dod and James Cameron.

On Nov. 25, 1884, at the Chapel of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist, New York City, Huntington made his profession as a monk.