Michael A. Mathis, C.S.C. (1885-1960)
Liturgical Pioneer
Page 1: Marked with the Sign of Faith
Michael
Ambrose Mathis was born October 6, 1885, in South Bend, Indiana, on the very
doorstep of the University of Notre Dame. His parents, recent immigrants
from Germany, lived in nearby St. Joseph Parish, staffed then, as now, by
priests of Holy Cross. His early education was divided between Catholic school
in South Bend, public school in Fitzgerald, Georgia, and St. Joseph's Orphanage
in Lafayette, Indiana, where he was sent after his mother's untimely death.
With the encouragement of the orphanage chaplain, Michael entered the Holy Cross preparatory seminary at Notre Dame in 1901, at the age of 16. After making his final profession of vows in the congregation of Holy Cross in 1907, and obtaining his bachelor's degree from Notre Dame in 1910, Mathis was offered an opportunity to study theology in Rome, but he confessed to his provincial superior that his heart lay elsewhere: he wanted to join the missions in Bengal. "Father," he said, "I've got the mission bug bad." And he would never get over it.
Since he showed so little interest in Rome, he was sent to Holy Cross College
in Washington, DC to study theology in preparation for his ordination to
the priesthood in 1914. But even after ordination, the outbreak of World
War I kept young Father Mathis from the missions after all. Still nourishing
the hope that his chance would come, he agreed to stay in Washington, first
studying architecture at The Catholic University of America, and then, when
he confessed that he could not get excited about bricks and mortar, pursuing
a doctorate in sacred scripture, which he completed in 1920 at Catholic University,
Washington, DC.
