Great American Catholic Eulogies

Eulogies have a long and important history in remembering and commemorating the dead. As Thomas Lynch notes in his Foreword, eulogies are meant "to speak for the ages, to bring homage and appreciation, the final appraisal, the last word and first draft of all future biography." In Great American Catholic Eulogies, Carol DeChant has compiled fifty of the most memorable and instructive eulogies, In Memoriam printed tributes, and elegiac poetry of Catholics in America.

The eulogies in Great American Catholic Eulogies span the American experience, from those who were born before the Declaration of Independence was written to a modern sports legend, from pioneers in social justice, healthcare, and the arts to founders of distinctly American religious orders, and from all the varied ethnic cultures who contribute to the great cultural milieu that is the United States. Great American Catholic Eulogies reveals the powerful value of a well-crafted eulogy: It reveals what a particular Catholic life has taught the eulogist.

Those eulogized in this volume include:

Chaplain Mychal Judge
Mother Katharine Drexel
William Tecumseh Sherman
Andre Dubus
Tim Russert
Flannery O Connor
Liz Christman
Sister Mary Ignatia
William F. Buckley
John F. Kennedy
Dorothy Day
Andy Warhol
Patricia Neal
Joseph Cardinal Bernadin
Rosemary Clooney
Erma Bombeck
Phil Rizzuto
Wellington T. Mara
Milton Batiste
Frederick Hart
Elly Chovel
Elizabeth Ann Seton
Mary K. Meyer
Joyce Kilmer