Rev Timoteo Pacitti
Passionist Priest

First American Immigrant - Rev Timoteo Pacitti (b1839)

Timoteo Pacitti is recorded as one of the earliest US Pacitti immigrants. The 1870 Federal Census from the State of Maryland was enumerated on 5th August 1870. Timoteo Pacitti (aged 31, name given as Timothy) was recorded as a Catholic clergyman living within the newly formed St Joseph’s Monastery on Catherine Street, Irvington, Baltimore County, Maryland.

Archbishop Martin J. Spalding of Baltimore invited the Passionists to the Archdiocese in 1865, thereby establishing the fourth foundation of the Passionist Order in the United States. The Passionists were initially given charge of St. Agnes Parish in Catonsville. The grounds were not large enough for a monastery however, and shortly after their arrival, the Passionists relocated to a tract of land opposite Loudon Park in the Irvington area of Baltimore.

Realising the neighborhood was in need of a worship space, the Passionists built a small wooden church in the grove on the property. The "Church of the Passion", as it was called, faithfully served the community for years, and marked the beginning of what would eventually become St. Joseph's Monastery Parish.

Timothy was one of first ten priests from the US, Italy, Ireland and Bavaria living in the monastery. By the time of the next census in 1880, the Reverend Timothy had moved to West Bohoken, Hudson New Jersey where he was the abbot and leader of the monastery community of St Michael's (comprising 19 priests, 2 students and 12 other workers).

His emergency passport application of 1893 provides some fascinating information about the Reverend Timothy. He was born 8th August 1839 at Atina, Italy and first arrived in the US on 10th December 1860 aboard the SS Fulton sailing from Le Havre. He was also naturalised as an American citizen in 1878. The passport application of 1893 was made in Mexico for the purpose of travelling to Spain and South America. He was described as 5ft 7in tall, high forehead, brown eyes, grecian nose, black hair, round face and beardless.

I have not been able to find any record of the Reverend Timoteo after 1893 so it is not known where and when he passed away.