Joseph Cataldo

{{Short description|Italian-American Jesuit priest and missionary (1837–1928)}}

Joseph Mary Cataldo (March 17, 1837 – April 9, 1928) was an Italian-American Jesuit priest, a pioneer missionary in the inland Pacific Northwest,{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Vc5XAAAAIBAJ&sjid=pPQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4169%2C2641659 |newspaper=Spokane Daily Chronicle |title=Father Cataldo celebration set |date=March 14, 1928 |page=1}} who also founded Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=cMBXAAAAIBAJ&sjid=HvQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5781%2C2000939 |newspaper=Spokane Daily Chronicle |title=Sixty years in Jesuit order celebrated by Father Cataldo |date=September 25, 1912 |page=5}}{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Ws9XAAAAIBAJ&sjid=pvQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6346%2C1628222 |newspaper=Spokane Daily Chronicle |title=Father Cataldo taken by death |date=April 10, 1928 |page=2}}{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xAxWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GuIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3810%2C2103839 |newspaper=Spokesman-Review |title=Fatally ill, he says last mass |date=April 11, 1928 |page=1}}{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SKhYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=svgDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7245%2C417115 |newspaper=Spokane Daily Chronicle |title=Ailing Father Cataldo was tough as they come |last=Bond |first=Rowland |date=September 2, 1972 |page=13 }}

Born in 1837 in Terrasini in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Cataldo was admitted to the Jesuit novitiate in Palermo, Sicily on December 22, 1852. After ordination he was sent to the foreign mission in the Rocky Mountains in the United States. Due to ill health, Cataldo was then sent to Panama and later to Santa Clara College in Santa Clara, California. After his recovery he was sent north to the Spokane Indians. He later was superior of the Rocky Mountain mission which included the Spokane.

Cataldo then opened a small schoolhouse at Saint Michael's Mission where both Native American and white students attended.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=BatWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qugDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4583%2C1017720 |newspaper=Spokesman-Review |last=Parks |first=Mike |title=Mount St. Michael's ready for historic recollection |date=September 18, 1866 |page=1 }} In order to expand the mission, he was able to purchase two parcels of land totalling {{convert|320|acre|km2}} for $936. The first parcel of {{convert|280|acre|km2}} north of Spokane was to be used for the relocation of St. Michael's mission. This location became the site for the Jesuit scholasticate Mount Saint Michael. The second parcel of {{convert|40|acre}} was located on the Spokane Falls, near modern downtown Spokane on the Spokane River. In 1881, Cataldo was encouraged to use the second parcel of land for the establishment of a college for the growing Catholic population in the area, and he established Gonzaga College there, now Gonzaga University.{{cite web|title=Spokane Valley Online |publisher=Spokane Valley Online |url=http://www.spokanevalleyonline.com/articles_spokane_cda_living/2006/joseph_caltado.html |accessdate=2008-02-08 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061117110740/http://www.spokanevalleyonline.com/articles_spokane_cda_living/2006/joseph_caltado.html |archivedate=November 17, 2006 }}{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=P85XAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ofQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5598%2C3370249 |newspaper=Spokane Daily Chronicle |title=Calls Gonzaga University real "mother" of Spokane |date=June 18, 1927 |page=3 }}

Cataldo never retired; into his 90s he served the Nez Perce people at Slickpoo near Kamiah, Idaho.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7J1XAAAAIBAJ&sjid=s_MDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6115%2C1382175 |newspaper=Spokesman-Review |title=Start work on Indian mission |date=September 2, 1924 |page=7}}{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Ps5XAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ofQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2790%2C3146289 |newspaper=Spokane Daily Chronicle |location=Washington |title=Missionary to Indians |agency=(photo) |date=June 17, 1927 |page=1 }} He died at age 92 at the Umatilla Indian Reservation, east of Pendleton, Oregon, on April 9, 1928.{{cite web

| title =Guide to the Joseph Cataldo, S.J. Papers 1862-2006

| publisher =Northwest Digital Archives

| url =http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/findaid/ark:/80444/xv83118

| accessdate =2008-02-08

| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20120225050647/http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/findaid/ark:/80444/xv83118

| archive-date =2012-02-25

| url-status =dead

}}