Brann, Henry Athanasius

BRANN, HENRY ATHANASIUS: Roman Catholic; b. at Parkstown (27 m. s.w. of Drogheda), County Meath, Ireland, Aug. 15, 1837. He came to the United States at the age of ten, and was educated at St. Mary's College, Wilmington, Del., St. Francis Xavier's College, New York City (B.A., 1857), St. Sulpice, Paris (1857–60), and the American College, Rome (D.D., 1862). He was ordained to the priesthood at Rome in 1862, being the first priest of the American College, and from 1862 to 1864 was vice-president of Seton Hall College, South Orange, N. J., where he also taught theology. Four years later he became director of an ecclesiastical seminary at Wheeling, W. Va., where he remained until 1870, when he was appointed rector of St. Elizabeth's Church, Fort Washington, N. Y. Twenty years later he became rector of St. Agness Church, New York City, where he still remains. He is archdiocesan censor of books and has written Curious Questions (Newark, N. J., 1867); Truth and Error (New York, 1871); Essay on the Popes (1875); The Age of Unreason (1881); The Immortality of the Soul (1882); and Life of Archbishop Hughes (1892).