O’HERN, Monsignor Charles

Monsignor Charles A. O’Hern (1881 – 1925) Rector of the North American College, Rome, was a close friend of Müller-Ury and persuaded Pope Pius XI to create him a Knight of St. Gregory the Great in 1923.  He was born on December 31, 1881 in Lawrence, Kansas, educated at St. Ignatius’s College, Chicago, ordained in July 1906, Vice Rector of the College from 1907, and Rector of the College from 1917 until his death aged 43 in Rochester, Minnesota from bronchial pneumonia on May 13, 1925.  He was buried in Chicago.  He was also private chamberlain to Pope Pius X from November 11, 1911, and to Pope Benedict XV from September 1914, finally becoming domestic prelate of the papal household on November 14, 1917.

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On December 10, 1920, O’Hern wrote from the Collegio Americano del Nord a card – in the artist’s papers – in which he told the artist that his pictures (portraits of Pope Benedict XV) had finally been shipped by American Express and that they should now be in New York. He also said this: ‘So many people have been so lavish in their encomiums of my picture that I am loath to part with it. I cannot thank you enough for the truly royal gift.’ After O’Hern’s death in May 1925 his brother John A. O’Hern wrote on May 27, 1925 from Chicago to the artist in part as follows:

‘…Perhaps the most cherished memory we will have of him during our lifetime is the beautiful portrait that you painted of him and which he left with my wife on the condition that it be returned to the college in Rome on her death…’

O’Hern’s wish was fulfilled, though it is uncertain when exactly.

A partial copy (bust-length) is also the property of the North American College. It was painted as part of a series of small portraits by an artist called Greganti in 1955.