Welcome to Saint Vincent Archabbey

From The Sportsman's Hall Parish Later Named Saint Vincent 1790-1846, By Omer U. Kline, O.S.B., Published by Saint Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, 15650-1690, U.S.A. © 1990, 1998 by Omer U. Kline. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

Father Stillinger had been born in Baltimore, Maryland on April 19, 1801, a son of parents who had been born in America from German and French lineage. For some reason that he did not give, James Stillinger, from the age of eleven, lived in the Philadelphia area with his paternal grandparents, who had taken "him to themselves." When his grandfather died in 1812, "he was variously employed in several respectable families" while he was growing up - from the age of eleven to the age of fifteen - and attempting to go to school when he had a chance. In 1816 James Stillinger "was employed for a short time in a German printing office where he learned to read German by setting type." It was this knowledge of German that would serve him so well during his many years of pastoral endeavor. In 1817 James Stillinger began an apprenticeship of nearly four years - from the age of sixteen to the age of nineteen -in the printing office of Robert G. Harper in Gettysburg, Adams County, Pennsylvania. And it was while working in Gettysburg that the personal narrative of the priestly vocation of James Stillinger began to unfold.

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Stillinger Monument
In his autobiographical account, Father Stillinger traced the origins of his vocation to the priesthood. He noted that early in life it had been suggested that he study for the priesthood, but his response was that, "if he had the desire he had not the means," and "that it would be more satisfactory to him to learn a trade and by honest industry earn the means to pay his way, if he wanted to take such a step." What follows in the autobiographical letter of Father Stillinger is a long account of the steps that lead him to Mt. St. Mary's College and Seminary, Emmitsburg, Maryland in November, 1820. It all began when he visited Mt. St. Mary's on Sunday, July 19, 1818 - prophetically the feast of Saint Vincent de Paul - to attend Mass. There James Stillinger met Father John Dubois, S.S., a Sulpician priest who was to become in 1826, Bishop of the New York Diocese. Thus began the relationship that, for over the next two years, would foster his priestly vocation. And, in the spring of 1820, James Stillinger asked Mr. Harper to relieve him of his apprenticeship in the Gettysburg printing office; it took six months for Mr. Harper to release him of his indenture after having found other apprentices to take his place.
So it was that James Stillinger, in November of 1820, arrived at Mt. St. Mary's, where he was to remain for ten years. Father Stillinger, in his autobiographical account, tells us of these formative years in the following modest and brief passage: "How he conducted himself is for others to say. It is sufficient to say he had the good will of his superior and not an enemy that he knew of." This firsthand account continued by giving the following succinct rendition of the events that brought Father Stillinger to western Pennsylvania in November 1830:

"He was ordained on the 28th day of February 1830 by Archbishop Whitfield (of the Archdiocese of Baltimore), and the 72nd priest ordained in Baltimore. He returned to Mt. St. Mary's a few days after his ordination and attended to the mountain congregation and Liberty until November following, when he was appointed by Bishop Kenrick Pastor of SS. Simon's and Jude's Church, Blairsville, Indiana County, Pennsylvania. St. Vincent's then called 'Sportsman's Hall,' near Youngstown, and all Westmoreland County was added to his charge.

The Young Father Stillinger must have been an impressive person. He has been described as "tall in stature, dignified in bearing, kind in manner, and firm in determination." He was, in carrying out his duties as a priest, "zealous, pious, punctual, and practical." And a further insight tells us that Father Stillinger's "condescending manner easily won the hearts of his people, while his firm and resolute will gained their confidence and guarded the rights of the pastor." He was always prepared to undergo any hardship for the good of his people. An even fuller description of Father Stillinger was given in 1914 by Father Andrew Arnold Lambing, the historian from Pittsburgh who had known him personally. He spoke of Father Stillinger's powerful frame that carried "at his heaviest nearly 300 pounds." His physical strength was demonstrated by the strength of his grip, so that "in shaking hands he could almost crush the hand of a strong man." Father Lambing continued his description of Father Stillinger by saying: "His countenance was of the German cast, though his accent betrayed little of his Teutonic extraction." Father Stillinger's voice was distinctive; Father Lambing describes it as "soft and gentle and devoid of the metallic ring and fullness that distinguish the orator, yet he possessed a fervor that few could find it in their hearts to resist." The account also speaks of Father Stillinger's sparkling and playful eyes, which attracted the young and filled them "with confidence, while inspiring them with respect." This, then, was the young priest who appeared on the scene in Westmoreland and Indiana Counties in November 1830, to begin what was to be a forty-three year missionary apostolate.
Father Stillinger died suddenly on the morning of September 19, 1873, at the age of seventy-two. He had died of heart failure in the sacristy of the Blairsville church after having said Mass. He was laid to rest in a place he had chosen behind the church. His remains have since been moved to the Saints Simon and Jude Cemetery on the outskirts of Blairsville. Father Andrew Arnold Lambing, the Pittsburgh church historian who knew Father Stillinger personally, has given us an appropriate encomium for this great priest, when, in 1880, he called him: "A man who figured more conspicuously than any other in the history of the Church in Westmoreland and Indiana Counties."