Joe Pagetta began his career writing for the Jersey Journal in his hometown of Jersey City, New Jersey, and has called Nashville, Tennessee, home for close to thirty years. His personal essays and writings on faith and culture have appeared in America: The Jesuit Review, Ambassador Magazine, Today’s American Catholic, Give Us This Day, Chapter 16, Tennessee Historical Quarterly, and Tennessee Home & Farm. He currently serves as the director of communications for the Tennessee State Museum.

“With thorough research and genuine affection for his subject, Joe Pagetta alternates between documentary reporting of the nascent Catholic Church in nineteenth-century Tennessee and stories of the quick-witted, survival-instinctive Italian priest whose itinerant service entailed much adversity and even danger. Pagetta’s engaging account likewise shifts between past and present, portraying not only the times and people Fr. Orengo served but also the descendants, parishes, and individuals who today continue good works in Tennessee.”—Bruce T. Morrill, SJ, author of Encountering Christ in the Eucharist: The Paschal Mystery in People, Word, and Sacrament

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Leaps and BoundsChapter 1: From Italy to KentuckyChapter 2: The Tennessee MissionsChapter 3: Many HardshipsChapter 4: The Growth of St. Patrick’sChapter 5: A Death in MemphisChapter 6: A Farewell to Bishop MilesChapter 7: The Railroad and the WarChapter 8: Sequestered in NashvilleChapter 9: A Post-War Return to Missionary LifeChapter 10: Jackson, Franklin, Humboldt, and MoreChapter 11: Yellow Fever, Cholera, and a Return to ItalyChapter 12: Final Years in ItalyEpilogueNotesBibliographyIndex

Joe Pagetta began his career writing for the Jersey Journal in his hometown of Jersey City, New Jersey, and has called Nashville, Tennessee, home for close to thirty years. His personal essays and writings on faith and culture have appeared in America: The Jesuit Review, Ambassador Magazine, Today’s American Catholic, Give Us This Day, Chapter 16, Tennessee Historical Quarterly, and Tennessee Home & Farm. He currently serves as the director of communications for the Tennessee State Museum.

“With thorough research and genuine affection for his subject, Joe Pagetta alternates between documentary reporting of the nascent Catholic Church in nineteenth-century Tennessee and stories of the quick-witted, survival-instinctive Italian priest whose itinerant service entailed much adversity and even danger. Pagetta’s engaging account likewise shifts between past and present, portraying not only the times and people Fr. Orengo served but also the descendants, parishes, and individuals who today continue good works in Tennessee.”—Bruce T. Morrill, SJ, author of Encountering Christ in the Eucharist: The Paschal Mystery in People, Word, and Sacrament

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Leaps and BoundsChapter 1: From Italy to KentuckyChapter 2: The Tennessee MissionsChapter 3: Many HardshipsChapter 4: The Growth of St. Patrick’sChapter 5: A Death in MemphisChapter 6: A Farewell to Bishop MilesChapter 7: The Railroad and the WarChapter 8: Sequestered in NashvilleChapter 9: A Post-War Return to Missionary LifeChapter 10: Jackson, Franklin, Humboldt, and MoreChapter 11: Yellow Fever, Cholera, and a Return to ItalyChapter 12: Final Years in ItalyEpilogueNotesBibliographyIndex

Joe Pagetta began his career writing for the Jersey Journal in his hometown of Jersey City, New Jersey, and has called Nashville, Tennessee, home for close to thirty years. His personal essays and writings on faith and culture have appeared in America: The Jesuit Review, Ambassador Magazine, Today’s American Catholic, Give Us This Day, Chapter 16, Tennessee Historical Quarterly, and Tennessee Home & Farm. He currently serves as the director of communications for the Tennessee State Museum.

“With thorough research and genuine affection for his subject, Joe Pagetta alternates between documentary reporting of the nascent Catholic Church in nineteenth-century Tennessee and stories of the quick-witted, survival-instinctive Italian priest whose itinerant service entailed much adversity and even danger. Pagetta’s engaging account likewise shifts between past and present, portraying not only the times and people Fr. Orengo served but also the descendants, parishes, and individuals who today continue good works in Tennessee.”—Bruce T. Morrill, SJ, author of Encountering Christ in the Eucharist: The Paschal Mystery in People, Word, and Sacrament

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Leaps and BoundsChapter 1: From Italy to KentuckyChapter 2: The Tennessee MissionsChapter 3: Many HardshipsChapter 4: The Growth of St. Patrick’sChapter 5: A Death in MemphisChapter 6: A Farewell to Bishop MilesChapter 7: The Railroad and the WarChapter 8: Sequestered in NashvilleChapter 9: A Post-War Return to Missionary LifeChapter 10: Jackson, Franklin, Humboldt, and MoreChapter 11: Yellow Fever, Cholera, and a Return to ItalyChapter 12: Final Years in ItalyEpilogueNotesBibliographyIndex