Luke J. Evers Collection

Fonds

Identifier: LJE

Staff Only

Scope and Content

Three black-and-white prints mounted on board: (1) an 8 x 6" photograph on 13.5 x 11" board identified as "First Mass for nightworkers offered by Rev. Luke J. Evers at 2.30 A.M., May 5th, 1901, St Andrews Church, N.Y.C."; (2) an 11.5 x 9" photograph on 12.5 x 10" board showing a group of clerics and laymen, some in western garb and some Egyptians, posing with camels in front of the Sphinx and Pyramid of Giza; (3) an 11 x 8.5" photograph on 16 x 13.5" board with Fr Evers and a group of priests and laymen, one with a United States flag, posing with a river in the background.

In related collections the archives holds correspondence between Evers and early presidents of Notre Dame dating from his college years (UPEL), a photograph of Fr Evers himself (GFCL), a program from the fifth anniversary of the institution of the Mass of Night Workers at St. Andrew's Church, New York, with internal halftoned individual photos of Archbishop John M. Farley, Pastor Rev. Luke J. Evers, St. Andrew's Church exterior at Duane Street and City Hall Place, Rev. Thomas Owens, Rev. D.F. O'Connor, and Rev. Antonio Palisi, dated 6 May 1906 (GPOR); and notes on Fr Evers (CHOP).

Dates

Creation: circa 1901.

Creator

Luke J. Evers (Person)

Language of Materials

English.

Legal Status

Private

Background

Luke J. Evers, a native of Sing Sing, New York, attended Notre Dame starting in 1874, graduated with the class of 1879, and spent the following year as the director of Notre Dame's band. He was ordained a priest in Troy, N.Y., in 1883. After his ordination he worked as assistant in Newburgh, N.Y., earned a Master of Arts degree from Notre Dame (1886), and then served for eight years at St Catherine of Genoa at West 153rd Street in New York City. He became pastor of St. Andrew Church in Manhattan where, at the turn of the century, he founded a 2:30 a.m. Mass for people who worked at night, sometime called the Printers' Mass, since many of those who attended worked as printers in the neighborhood, where the Sun, Telegraph, and World were published. He also served as chaplain for the Tombs prison and directed the Bowery Mission of the Holy Name of Jesus for homeless men. Msgr. Evers died 23 June 1924.

The author of the centennial history of Notre Dame, Fr Arthur Hope, C.S.C., says on three note cards: (1) "Fr Luke Evers was always a warm friend and active supporter in East of N.D. -- one of most enthusiastic of alumni." (2) "Rev. Luke J. Evers, a graduate of N.D., class of 1879, and always a loyal and generous supporter of his Alma Mater, granted permission by Pope to celebrate Mass in St Andrew's Church, N.Y. City, of which he was rector, at 2:30 A.M. for convenience of newspaper men and P.O. employees. Archbishop Corrigan intercedes with Pope for consent, a precedent in U.S." (3) "A very prominent and esteemed priest who bacame pastor of St Andrew, N.Y. City -- a graduate of N.D. Class of 1879. One of the most loyal of N.D. 'boosters' in N.Y. Greatly influential in the steadily increasing enrollment from N.Y. City. Delivers baccalaureate address, commencement, 1899. Remains as guest of University until end of commmencement, June 15 /99." (Arthur J. Hope Papers, box 6).