In anticipation of the upcoming World Day of Migrants and Refugees on Sept. 27, the Archive Department is collaborating with the Office of Multicultural Ministries to share a series of historical migration stories. These stories will highlight the impact that immigrants and refugees have had on our archdiocese, inviting us to remember those whose journeys, experiences, and sacrifices have helped to shape our shared history. Remembering these stories serves to remind us that we are all people on a journey -- a community shaped by generations of people who have crossed borders in search of safety, opportunity, and a place to call home.

This week, we are highlighting the migration story of Cardinal Humberto S. Medeiros, Archbishop of Boston from 1970 to 1983.

Cardinal Medeiros was born in Arrifes on the island of Sao Miguel in the Azores, on Oct. 6, 1915. The oldest child of Antonio Medeiros and Maria de Jesus Sousa Massa Flor, he was baptized on Nov. 1, 1915, at the parish of Nossa Senhora da Saude in Arrifes. Cardinal Medeiros's father, Antonio, was a farm worker who also owned a small variety store.

The Medeiros family lived in poverty. At a time when high school was neither compulsory nor free in the Azores, the young Humberto Medeiros grew up believing that he would never get an education beyond the standard four years of primary school. He thought that he was fated to work the fields beginning as a teenager, as his father had done before him.

Indeed, at the age of 12, young Medeiros went to work to help support his family, not in the fields but at a wholesale grocer in the city of Ponta Delgada. He was soon recognized for his intelligence and work ethic by a Ponta Delgada lawyer, who invited him to work as a clerk in his law practice. Alongside the work, there was also joy: the joys of community, faith, family, and friendship. The parish church was the heart of Arrifes; the children played baseball and football (soccer) in the square. Medeiros was given art lessons by a friend of his employer -- a treasured opportunity for a young man who thirsted for education of any kind.

In 1928, the course of the family's life would forever change. Antonio Medeiros's grocery venture had incurred serious debts, and he made the choice that so many of his countrymen had made before him: to go to the United States in search of economic opportunity.

Antonio Medeiros made three trips to the United States between 1928 and 1931: to Fall River, Massachusetts, New York, and California. "The fourth time," Cardinal Medeiros remembered, "he said, 'I'm not coming back, you'll have to meet me.'" And so, in 1931, the entire Medeiros family immigrated to the United States, settling in Fall River.

The early years in Fall River were difficult for the future cardinal, who was then only 15 years old. He knew no English and, as he would recall, he "had to adjust to rather new circumstances and surroundings." He attended public school for a short period of time before he was called upon once again to work to support his family.

He turned to the mills for work and found a position as a sweeper in a cotton mill, earning 6 cents per day. Eventually, he was able to reenter school, where he came to be beloved by his classmates. He graduated as valedictorian of his class at the age of 21.

Having discerned a call to the priesthood during high school, Cardinal Medeiros was ordained on June 15, 1946. He rose through the ranks quickly in Fall River, serving in his first eight years as: assistant to the chancellor, priest secretary to Bishop James Connolly, vice-chancellor, and chancellor. Along the way, he was given parish assignments and chaplaincies, holding a deep love for his pastoral work.

Hard work and strong faith were the mainstays of Cardinal Medeiros's life -- the "secret" to his success. And success it was. In 1966, Pope Paul VI appointed him Bishop of Brownsville, Texas. Four years later, the same pope appointed him to a much larger diocese: the Archdiocese of Boston.

Many who are still alive can remember the strong backlash to Cardinal Medeiros's appointment as Archbishop of Boston.

Cardinal Medeiros was the first Archbishop of Boston to have been born outside of the archdiocese since Boston's second bishop, Benedict J. Fenwick, who served from 1825 to 1846. He was the first immigrant since its first bishop, Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus. He was the first non-Irish American bishop in Boston in more than 120 years. And in not only background but personal style, the humble, soft-spoken Cardinal Medeiros could not have been different from his larger-than-life predecessor, Cardinal Richard J. Cushing, a South Boston native and second-generation Irish American.

In the face of hatred and opposition from a small but vocal minority, Cardinal Medeiros came to frame his appointment as a cross, a "sweet burden of Our Lord," as he called it, to be taken up willingly, rather than cast aside. In his 13 years as Archbishop of Boston, he faced many crosses, always from a position of faith and trust in God.

Cardinal Medeiros's life was a testament to the power of faith and perseverance. Here in the archdiocese, Cardinal Medeiros worked tirelessly to place the archdiocese on firmer financial footing while continuing its mission to serve those most in need. His story reminds us that the journeys of immigrants can lead not only to new lives, but to profound and lasting gifts for the communities they come to call their own.



VIOLET HURST IS AN ARCHIVIST FOR THE ARCHDIOCESE OF BOSTON.



- Violet Hurst is an archivist for the Archdiocese of Boston.