Monsignor Peter Keenan Guilday (March 25, 1884 - July 31, 1947) US Catholic priest and historian, born in Chester, Pennsylvania

Chester, Pennsylvania

Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States, with a population of 33,972 at the 2010 census. Chester is situated on the Delaware River, between the cities of Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware.- History :...

 of Irish parents. He studied for the priesthood at St. Charles Borromeo Seminry, Overbrook PA

Overbrook, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Overbrook is a neighborhood northwest of West Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The area contains an assortment of housing from large, old homes to row homes to 3-4 story apartment buildings.-Physical setting:...

. He gained his PhD from Louvain University with a disseration on The English Colleges and Convents in the Catholic Low Countries, 1558–1795. Peter Guilday taught at Catholic University of America (from 1914), and was principal editor of the Catholic Historical Review

Catholic Historical Review

The Catholic Historical Review is the official organ of the American Catholic Historical Association. It was founded at The Catholic University of America in 1915 and is published by The Catholic University of America Press. The journal publishes articles and book reviews received in all areas of...

(from 1915 to 1941), and cofounder of the American Catholic Historical Association

American Catholic Historical Association

The American Catholic Historical Association was founded by Peter Guilday in Cleveland, Ohio, in December, 1919 as a national society that would bring together scholars interested in the history of the Catholic Church or in Catholic aspects of secular history...

 (1919). His writings established him as the period's leading scholar in Catholic Church history. In 1924 Guilday was elected a fellow

Fellow

A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...

 of the Royal Historical Society

Royal Historical Society

The Royal Historical Society was founded in 1868. The premier society in the United Kingdom which promotes and defends the scholarly study of the past, it is based at University College London...

, in 1935 he was made a domestic prelate

Monsignor

Monsignor, pl. monsignori, is the form of address for those members of the clergy of the Catholic Church holding certain ecclesiastical honorific titles. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian monsignore, from the French mon seigneur, meaning "my lord"...

 of his church by Pope Pius XI.

Sources

• The Hutchinson Encyclopedia
• John Tracy Ellis, "Monsignore Peter Guilday" in The Catholic Historical Review XXXXIII,3 (oct. 1947), 257-268