Monsignor Hugh Francis Blunt
The story of the Blunt-Newman collection and its arrival at Regis College begins with Monsignor Hugh Francis Blunt and cannot be told without him.
In 1893 he attended St. Laurent College in Montreal, where he first discovered his passion for writing. After graduating from college in 1896 Blunt attended St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts, graduating with his Ph.D. He was officially ordained as a Catholic priest on December 20th, 1901. As part of his ordination gift Hugh Blunt received a set of Cardinal Newman’s works, which ignited a life-long passion for collecting Newman material. It is safe to speculate that his love of Newman also contributed to his love of writing
Blunt’s career included many literary posts: from 1911 to 1919 he was the chief editorial writer for the Boston Pilot, as well, he served as the editor for Sacred Heart Review from 1917 to 1920. For his contributions to Catholic literature, the University of Notre Dame awarded Father Blunt an honorary doctorate in 1920. Though he was known throughout the country as a notable lecturer and writer he always remained very humble and often commented that he became an “author by accident.”
From the moment Father Blunt received a set of Newman’s works as his ordination gift he began to grow his Newman collection until it numbered in the thousands of volumes. As his collection grew, he began to think about a place where he would be able to deposit his collection for the enjoyment of students and the general public. At some unknown point, he decided that his bequest should be left to Regis College, although that decision is perhaps not surprising.
Monsignor Blunt had several close ties to Regis College that led him to believe it was the proper home for his collection: one of his nieces was a Sister of St. Joseph, two others attended Regis, and he grew up as a childhood friend of Sister Joan Patrice, an early Regis librarian. In addition, Sister Therese Higgins, who would later serve as the President of Regis College from 1974 to 1991, wrote her master's thesis on The Rhetorical Practice of John Henry Newman (English, Boston College, 1957).