Almanac: December
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In 1937 this was the date of the dedication of St. Mary's Center. It first served as the University Commons. After the present Commons was built in 1958, it was renamed St. Mary's (the name had originally been used for a three-story convent on campus) and the building housed classrooms and meeting rooms. On Sundays the principal Masses were celebrated in the front fireplace room, and in the 1960's it housed the principal chapel on campus and offices and meeting rooms for campus ministry (known as "The Backdoor"). After the completion of the Chapel of Christ the Teacher, St. Mary's was given to a variety of student-life offices and activities but it continued, from time to time, to serve other purposes on a temporary basis.
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In 1957 the University celebrated on this date the dedication of Villa Maria as the first permanent on-campus residence hall for women. A new wing was added in 1961. It became a residence hall for men in 1984 when Shipstad Hall, which had been a men's residence hall, was opened to both men and women.
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According to The Writer's Almanac , "It was on this day in 1589 that Edmund Spenser's epic poem The Faerie Queene was registered for publication. . . . The Faerie Queene was a big hit in England, partly because it was full of praise for Queen Elizabeth and Protestantism. John Milton liked the poem because of its moral lessons. Two hundred years later, English Romantic poets like John Keats and Samuel Taylor Coleridge admired The Faerie Queene for its beautiful, intricate rhyming patterns and its rich story. Today, it's considered one of the greatest poems ever written in English. The first Canto of The Faerie Queene begins:
A Gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine,
Ycladd in mightie armes and siluer shielde,
Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remaine,
The cruell markes of many' a bloudy fielde . . ."
- Father Paul E. Fryberger, C.S.C., died on this date in 1999 at the age of 93. From 1959 to 1969 he had taught economics at Portland. He returned to live with the Holy Cross community at Portland after spending some years as a chaplain in southern California. He lived in Portland until just a couple of years before his death. In his retirement he contributed to the life of the community by undertaking the mechanical maintenance of their fleet of cars and to the spiritual life of Catholics in eastern Oregon by substituting for vacationing pastors.
- Joseph Conrad was born of Polish ancestry on this date in 1857 in Berdichev, Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire. Although his father was a poet and translator of French and English literature, Conrad did not settle in an English-speaking country until 1878 when he came to England. He began writing and publishing when he was about thirty years old, having spent more than a decade as a merchant seaman. His most notable novels include Nostromo, Lord Jim, and his masterpiece, Heart of Darkness.
- On this date in 2005 the University's women's soccer team won the NCAA Division I national championship by defeating UCLA 4 to 0 at the national finals played at College Station, Texas. It was the second national championship for the team in four seasons, the first under Coach Garrett Smith. The victory was marked by other accomplishments impressive in themselves. They became only the second women's soccer team in NCAA history to win the championship after being undefeated in regular season play. And Christine Sinclair scored two goals in this game, breaking the record for the number of goals scored by an individual player in a single season. The team was also the most popular USA collegiate soccer team in history with more than 40,000 in paid attendance at home games. The Pilots had come to the championship game after a semi-final scoreless game against Penn State, also undefeated in the season. After two scoreless overtime periods the Pilots finally outshot Penn State in a series of penalty kicks.
- On this date in 1963 Pope Paul VI promulgated the first document of the Second Vatican Council, the constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, inaugurating the liturgical reform often identified as the principal accomplishment of the Council.
- Father John P. Whelly, C.S.C., who served at the University from 1940 to 1945, died on this date in 1976 at age 68.
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The announcement was made on this date in 1977 that Pope Paul VI had named University of Portland President Father Paul E. Waldschmidt, C.S.C., auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Portland.
- And this is the feast of St. Nicholas, the proto-type of Santa Claus, commonly thought of as the patron of children but also the patron of other groups from pharmacists to brides to sailors to judges, and of countries such as Russia and Greece, and of the University of Paris. He is a saint so overwhelmed (almost literally) with legend that it is difficult to remember who he was and even more difficult to figure out why he became so widely venerated. He was the fourth-century bishop of Myra (now in Turkey), who was known for his generosity to the poor and the innocent.
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This is the feast of St. Ambrose, doctor of the Church and one of the four great fathers of the western Church. While still a catechumen he was chosen by acclamation as bishop of the church at Milan. His instruction brought about the conversion of St. Augustine.
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On this date in 1965 Pope Paul VI promulgated the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, the last of the major documents issued by the fathers of the Second Vatican Council.
- Father Leo Heiser, C.S.C., who served at the University from 1908 to 1916, died on this date in 1942 at age 61.
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This is the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Under this title the mother of Jesus was named as patroness of the United States by the Catholic bishops of the country.
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On this date in 2002 the Pilots' women's soccer team won the first NCAA Division I national championship in University history. Playing in Austin, Texas, the team defeated its conference rival, Santa Clara University, by a score of 2 to 1 in overtime. Both Pilot goals were scored by Christine Sinclair. It was the seventh time in nine years under Coach Clive Charles that the women Pilots had advanced to the final four, the second time they had played in a championship game. In 1995 they had lost to Notre Dame in a game for the national championship played at South Bend.
- Father Joseph S. McGrath, C.S.C, died on this date in 1989 at age 86. He was a member of the University faculty in biology from 1939 to 1957.
- Father Arthur Schoenfeldt, C.S.C., died on this date in 2007 at Holy Cross House, Notre Dame, Indiana. He was 77 years old. Known to students as "Padre," Father Schoenfeldt served and lived at the University of Portland from 1978 until a few months before his death. In the earlier of these years he served as resident director of Christie Hall, but his ministry to students and staff continued through his years of residence in Mehling Hall and at Holy Cross Court and he came to know many students by name and family even when he had no formal connection. He was a native of Portland and graduated from Columbia Prep when the school was still located with the University on the Bluff. A residence hall on the campus, funded in part by a gift from his family, has been named for him.
- The University of Portland Almanac presently offers no specific entry for this date. If you wish to suggest material that would appropriately be listed under this date, please contact the editor.
- This is the feast of St. Damasus (304-384), Pope, credited with encouraging St. Jerome to undertake the translation of the Bible known as the Vulgate. Because he is also associated with the establishment of the archives of the Roman Church and attended to the restoration and preservation of the relics of Christian history, he may also be regarded as a patron saint of archivists and historical curators.
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This is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The feast commemorates the apparition of the Blessed Virgin in December of 1531 to a native of Mexico, Juan Diego, a convert to the Catholic faith. Under this title Mary is celebrated as the patroness of Mexico and of all the Americas.
- Father Hugh Gallagher, C.S.C, who had served at the University from 1904-1918, died on this date in 1949 at age 76.
- This is the feast of Saint Lucy, a martyr from the beginning of the fourth century who became celebrated in folk custom and in song from Italy to Scandinavia. Because her name, in Latin, is associated with light, and because her feast day in the time of the Julian calendar coincided with the winter solstice, the date of the longest night of the year in the northern latitudes, observances in Sweden included the crowning of young girls with wreaths of candles. The English poet, John Donne, used the date in " A Nocturnal upon Saint Lucy's Day, Being the Shortest Day " to speak of the anguish of love.
- This is the feast of St. John of the Cross, sixteenth-century Carmelite reformer and doctor of the Church. Well known for his spiritual writings including The Ascent of Mt. Carmel and The Dark Night of the Soul, he is also celebrated as a mystical poet; the translation of his poetry into English by John Frederick Nims, late editor of Poetry magazine, has also received much praise.
- The University of Portland Almanac presently offers no specific entry for this date. If you wish to suggest material that would appropriately be listed under this date, please contact the editor.
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Father Michael O'Brien, C.S.C., died on this date in 2003 at the age of 92. He had served at the University of Portland as a faculty member in the department of English, as chairman of the department, and as Vice President for Academic Affairs from 1969 to 1976. He enjoyed a reputation as a popular, inspiring, and witty member of the University community. He had earlier served as the Dean of Studies under an older title and as Resident Director of the Salzburg Program.
- Father James Gallagan, C.S.C., who served at the University from 1911 to 1915, died on this date in 1950 at age 67.
- The University of Portland Almanac presently offers no specific entry for this date. If you wish to suggest material that would appropriately be listed under this date, please contact the editor.
- On this date in 2008 the University awarded its 10,000th graduate degree. The Graduate School at the University had its beginning in 1950 and over the years most of the degrees awarded have been master's degrees, but in its early years it also awarded doctorates in education and in psychology. The last PhD in Education was awarded in 1972; the University awarded its last PhD in Psychology in the summer of 1974.
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In Strelno, Prussia, this was the birthday in 1852 of Albert A. Michelson, the first American scientist to win the Nobel Prize in physics. He had come to the United States when he was two and graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1873 (where he did well in science but was below average in seamanship). He became the first chair of physics at the University of Chicago. He is best known for the Michelson-Morley experiment which disproved the idea that there was a medium, ether, through which light traveled. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1907 for his invention of the Michelson interferometer.
- The Writer's Almanac tells us that on this date in 1843 Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol.
- The University of Portland Almanac presently offers no specific entry for this date. If you wish to suggest material that would appropriately be listed under this date, please contact the editor.
- The winter solstice, the darkest day of the year in the northern latitudes, occurs on this date virtually every year at the longitude of Portland. December 22 is sometimes given as the date of this solstice, but that is because the exact moment is calculated for what is now called "Universal Time," once called "Greenwich Mean Time." In the years 1992 to 2020 the winter solstice would fall on the 22nd in Portland only in 1995, and even then it occurred only at seventeen minutes past midnight Pacific Standard Time.
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This is the feast of St. Peter Canisius, Doctor of the Church. A sixteenth-century Jesuit, he taught in universities at Ingolstadt in Bavaria, Vienna, and Prague, and founded colleges at Innsbruck and Fribourg.
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At St. Mary's Cathedral in Portland, this date in 1963 saw the ordination of the Reverend Gerald T. Papen, C.S.C., by Archbishop Edward Howard.
- Father John L. VanWolvlear, C.S.C., died on this date in 1995 at Notre Dame, Indiana, at the age of 73. Father Van, as he was universally called, came to Portland in 1965 and served in several posts, notably as director of admissions. He remained at Portland until 1973 when he was appointed resident director of the Salzburg Program.
- The University of Portland Almanac presently offers no specific entry for this date. If you wish to suggest material that would appropriately be listed under this date, please contact the editor.
- Father James Brady, C.S.C., died on this date in 2005. He was 72. From 1962 to 1972 he served as a faculty member in theology; he also served as director of Christie Hall and later as director of Kenna Hall (known then as Holy Cross Hall). In 1972 he became Catholic chaplain at Oregon College of Education (now Oregon Western University) and in 1974 he was appointed pastor of St. Patrick's Parish in Independence, Oregon. At the time of his death he was pastor of St. Mary's Parish in Shaw, Oregon.
- This is Christmas Eve. In 1999, in Rome, Pope John Paul II solemnly opened the Holy Year Door at St. Peter's Basilica to mark the beginning of the Great Jubilee Year 2000.
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The establishment of December 25 as the anniversary of the birth of Jesus has a long and complex history. In the ancient Church the first and most significant annual feast was Easter, celebrated on the first day of the week following the Feast of Passover in the Jewish calendar. The December date for the birth of Jesus may indeed follow the much older tradition of celebrating the Feast of the Annunciation on the first day of the civil year. In the Roman world the civil year commonly began on the day of the spring equinox, in the first century a date closer to March 25 although the limitations of the Julian calendar allowed the equinox to drift to earlier dates in the month. In the fourth century the Church and the Empire tried to correct this trend, but managed to bring the date of the equinox only to March 21 and this concurrence was accepted by the designers of the Gregorian reform of the calendar in 1582.
- In 1999 Christmas Day marked the official beginning of the Great Jubilee Year 2000 with the opening of Holy Year Doors at the Basilicas of St. John Lateran and St. Mary Major in Rome.
- This is the feast of St. Stephen, first martyr. His feast has been celebrated on this date since the early middle ages and is remembered in the English carol, "Good King Wenceslaus."
- Father William T. Duffy, C.S.C., died on this date in 1983 at Notre Dame, Indiana. He was 64 at the time of his death and had taught mathematics at Portland from 1949 until a couple of years before his death when poor eyesight and ill health forced his retirement. When the leadership of the University was separated from the leadership of the local Holy Cross community in 1962, Father Duffy was appointed local superior of the Holy Cross community, until that time filled by the University's president.
- This is the feast of the Holy Innocents, the children ordered killed by Herod (Matthew 2, 16-18) in his effort to destroy the Child sought by the Magi.
- This is the feast of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was killed on this date in 1170 by four knights who believed they were acting on the wishes of King Henry II. The event is the basis for T. S. Eliot's play, Murder in the Cathedral (1935).
- The University of Portland Almanac presently offers no specific entry for this date. If you wish to suggest material that would appropriately be listed under this date, please contact the editor.
- On this date in 1999, an editorial in the New York Times noted that the Gregorian Calendar, by which authority the next day would be designated January 1, 2000, was the most widely effective cultural phenomenon in the history of mankind.
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