How did a Jesuit missionary survive a brutal anti-Catholic tar-and-feathering to found Boston College, and why was Prague's famous Marian Column dismantled in 1918 and rebuilt a century later? On The Son Rise Morning Show, host Matt Swaim welcomes back Church historian Dr. Kevin Schmiesing to look at two major milestones in "This Week in Catholic History."

Schmiesing recounts the remarkable life of Fr. John Bapst, S.J. (1815–1887), a Swiss-born Jesuit who ministered to the Abenaki Native Americans and Irish and French immigrants in Maine. During the rise of the anti-Catholic Know-Nothing movement in the 1850s, Fr. Bapst defended Catholic school children against forced reading of the Protestant King James Bible. In October 1854, an anti-Catholic mob in Ellsworth, Maine, dragged Fr. Bapst from a home, riding him out of town to tar and feather him. Undeterred, Fr. Bapst celebrated Mass the following morning under the protection of fair-minded Protestant neighbors. He went on to serve as president of the College of the Holy Cross and helped found Boston College before passing away on November 2, 1887.

Moving to 20th-century European history, Schmiesing details the tearing down of Prague's historic 50-foot Marian Column on November 3, 1918. Originally erected in 1650 to commemorate the defense of Prague against Swedish forces at the close of the Thirty Years' War, the column became viewed as a political symbol of the Catholic Austro-Hungarian Empire during the Czech independence movement. Schmiesing explains how the column stood across from a statue of Jan Hus until its destruction by a crowd in 1918, and chronicles its modern resurrection in June 2020 after the fall of Communism as a restored symbol of Czech heritage and Marian devotion. Stream now to listen!