Father Arnold Damen, SJ

Father Arnold Damen, SJ (1815 - 1890)Any denizen of Chicago won’t have to go far to come across the name Damen.  It is not only the name of one of Chicago’s longest thoroughfares, running from Andersonville to the south of Bridgeport, but is a stop on nearly all of Chicago’s color-coded el lines. And yet few realize that the man behind the name was a pioneer, missionary and visionary responsible for great institutions of learning and spearheading the long and distinguished Jesuit presence in Chicago.Arnold Damen was born in the Brabant province of the Netherlands in 1815 when the tiny kingdom was no longer sending ships, explorers and traders throughout the world but thousands of men and women religious, priests and missionaries. When Damen came to the United States it was as a young Jesuit novice with the intention of studying for the priesthood at the novitiate in Florrisant, Missouri. Stationed for a time at Saint Louis after his ordination, Fr. Damen was reassigned to Chicago to es