Charles Constantine Pise (1801-1866) was born in Annapolis, Maryland, and enrolled at Georgetown College in 1812.
Time in the Jesuit Order
In 1815 he entered the Society of Jesus and was one of the scholastics chosen for training in Rome in 1820 (alongside Frs. William McSherry, James Ryder, John Smith, Thomas Mulledy, and George Fenwick); by 1821, however, he had left the Society and returned to the U.S. to care for his mother.
Career after Leaving the Jesuit Order
He eventually resumed his religious studies at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he also taught classes in rhetoric and poetry. In 1825, he was ordained as a diocesan priest and worked in Washington, D.C. at St. Patrick’s Church. In 1832, he served as Senate Chaplain for the 22nd US Congress. By 1835 he had moved to St. Joseph’s and then St. Peter’s in New York City, after which he helped found the Church of St. Charles Borromeo in Brooklyn (1849). He stayed there as pastor until his death in 1866.1
- 1"Biographical Note." Finding Aid for the Charles Constantine Pise Papers, GTM-GAMMS18, Booth Family Center for Special Collections, Georgetown University. https://findingaids.library.georgetown.edu/repositories/15/resources/10079