Portrait of Lambing from his 1914 work Brief Biographical Sketches of the Deceased Bishops and Priests who Labored in the Diocese of Pittsburgh from the Earliest Times to the Present
MonsignorAndrew Arnold Lambing, who was also known as the Rev. Dr. A. A. Lambing (February 1, 1842 – December 24, 1918), was an American
Roman Catholicpriest and
historian. He was one of the nation's foremost priest-historians, having founded the first Catholic historical society in the United States (The
Ohio Valley Catholic Historical Society, in February 1884) as well as the first Catholic historical quarterly.[1][2][3]
Formative years
Born into poverty on February 1, 1842, as "the third son and child in a family of nine," in a hamlet that became
Manorville,
Armstrong County,
Pennsylvania, adjacent to
Ford City, Lambing worked on his family's farm while still just a boy. As an adolescent, he worked in a brick yard and in the new oil business of
Samuel Kier on the
Allegheny River.[4][5]
At the age of twenty-one, Lambing entered St. Michael's Preparatory and Theological Seminary in
Pittsburgh and was ordained in 1869 by
Bishop Michael Domenec.[6][7]
Academic and theological career
Briefly assigned to teach history at
St. Francis College, Loretto,[8] Lambing spent the next forty years of Pittsburgh's post-
Civil War years ministering to thousands of Catholic immigrants from Europe during both an industrial and a population boom, and was credited with calming strikers who were intent on destroying a freight depot of the
Pennsylvania Railroad in the city's rail yards during the
Great Railroad Strike of 1877.
Among the first academically trained historians of
Western Pennsylvania, Lambing was also the first to document the beginnings of the Catholic Church in the region. Two of his most important contributions were the first English translation, from the French, of the 1749 journal of
Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville and the publication of the register of
baptisms at
Fort Duquesne.[9][10][11]
He also presented history lectures for area school students, and wrote numerous articles for newspapers and magazines on historical and religious subjects, including the majority of two early and significant regional histories: History of Allegheny County and the Standard History of Pittsburgh, and served as president of the
Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania.[12][13][14]
Lambing died on Christmas Eve in 1918, and was buried in the priest's section of
St. Mary Cemetery in the city's
Lawrenceville neighborhood. His headstone is in the shape of a large open book.
Legacy
A lecture series, the Andrew Arnold Lambing Lectureship, was established in his honor in 1955 by the
Catholic Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. The inaugural speaker was historian Mason Wade, whose April 21 presentation that year was, "The French in Western Pennsylvania."[16]
Books
The Orphan’s Friend: A Series of Plain Instructions for the Use of Orphans after Leaving the Asylum, and for Persons of the Same Class Living in the World, nonfiction (New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Company, 1875)
The Sunday School Teacher’s Manual, or, the Art of Teaching Catechism..., nonfiction (New York, Cincinnati [etc.]: Benziger Brothers, 1877.)
A History of the Catholic Church in the Dioceses of Pittsburgh and Allegheny from Its Establishment to the Present Time, nonfiction (New York, Cincinnati [etc.]: Benziger Brothers, 1880.)
Masses for the Dead, and the Motive for Having Them Celebrated, nonfiction (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 1881.)
The Baptismal Register of Fort Duquesne, from June, 1754, to Dec. 1756, Translated from the French, with an Introductory Essay and Notes, by Rev. A. A. Lambing, nonfiction (Pittsburgh: Myers, Shinkle & Co., 1885.)
The Sacramentals of the Holy Catholic Church, nonfiction (New York, Cincinnati [etc.]: Benziger Brothers, 1892.)
Come, Holy Ghost, or, Edifying and Instructive Selections from Many Writers on Devotion to the Third Person of the Adorable Trinity, nonfiction (St. Louis: B. Herder, 1901.)
Brief Biographical Sketches of the Deceased Bishops and Priests Who Labored in the Diocese of Pittsburgh: From the Earliest Times to the Present, with an Historical Introduction, nonfiction (Pittsburgh: Republic Bank Note Co., 1914.)
Expedition of Celoron to the Ohio Country in 1749, nonfiction (Columbus, OH: The F.J. Heer Printing Co., 1921.)
References
^"
Father Lambing." Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: The Pittsburgh Daily Post, December 25, 1918, p. 5 (subscription required).