A great seeker of knowledge, Joseph Maria Finotti was born in Ferrara, Italy (a northern Italian town and comune in Emilia-Romagna) on September 21, 1817. Intelligence, and wealth, afforded him the opportunity to study at the Jesuit College in Rome. In 1842, at the age of 16, Joseph Finotti entered the Society of Jesus; a scholarly religious congregation of the Catholic Churchwhose members arecalled Jesuits.
In 1845, he came to America to continue his studies at Georgetown College in Maryland. While at Georgetown he also served as assistant to the college librarian. Two years later he was ordained as a priest at Georgetown. He remained at the college serving as professor and librarian until 1849. From 1847 to 1852 he served as pastor in Maryland and Virginia parishes.
Health conditions contributed to Finotti staying in Boston for 16 years as a secular priest (1852-1868). During this time he helped oversee the construction of many churches in America. He also worked as the editor of the Boston paper The Pilot. Under his leadership the paper employed the best Catholic writers of the time. It also worked to help immigrants adjust to life in America. In addition to contributing writings to several reviews and monthly and weekly Catholic papers, he also published a number of books. His Life of Blessed Peter Claveroffered insight into the issue of slavery from the point of view of the Roman Catholic Church. Other books by Finotti include: A Month of Mary (1853),Italy in the Fifteenth Century, Diary of a Soldier (1853) andWorks of Rev. Arthur O’Leary. Perhaps his greatest undertaking, Finotti compiled a bibliography of Roman Catholic literate in America. In 1871 he published his findings, documenting works from the earliest American publications on the church to 1820.
In the late 1860s, Father Finotti served as a professor at Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary of the West near Cincinnati, Ohio. After being appointed president of the college at Omaha, continued poor health resulted in Finotti’s offering his services to Bishop Joseph P. Machebeuf; who he worked with in Omaha. After a few months in Denver at the Cathedral, Finotti was sent to Central City in 1877 to serve as pastor of the Catholic Church there.
On January 10, 1879 Rev. Joseph Maria Finotti died in Central City. According to the Denver Daily Tribune, Reverend Father Matz (later Bishop Matz) accompanied Finotti’s remains to Denver for the funeral service. In keeping with Father Finotti’s request for a modest service, the funeral included mass and final rites, but no sermon. The paper also noted that “The procession which accompanied the body to the grave was very large, and was headed by the hearse with four black horses.” Father Finotti is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. By: Alisa DiGiacomo
