This is the second part of a three part interview with researcher Pete Hubbard regarding his exploration of the Father Hubbard collection held in Archives & Special Collections. Part I is available online and you can find all three parts with the tag Pete Hubbard Interview 2019.
On Spirituality
Returning to the interview with Pete Hubbard, we shift to Father Hubbard’s embrace of the Catholic religion, and how he incorporated spirituality into his outdoor work.
“Father Hubbard was first and foremost a Jesuit priest… His Faith was a foundation to who he was and what he accomplished in life,” Pete said. He pointed out the Mass kit on Father Hubbard’s collection in the Archives and Special Collections, which includes a chalice, a rosary, and vestments. Pete explained that Father Hubbard would say a daily Mass while on expeditions, and everyone on the trip with him fasted and took the Eucharist every single morning.
“In the collection there are letters of remembrance by his teammates of how Father Hubbard never missed a Mass, always had his breviary with him, and how he would go off to the side while on their breaks to say prayers. His praying was a means of focusing on the tasks at hand, keeping a cool head, and seeking the advice of a higher authority,” Pete said. “Prayer is probably what got the teams through a 36 hour blizzard on Katmai Pass, and the two times they nearly starved waiting for a fishing vessel to come pick them up at the end of an expedition.”
When asked about what he most admires about Father Hubbard, Pete says that it is fulfilling his vows as a Jesuit Priest. “He entered the Jesuit Society as a novitiate at Los Gatos on Sept 7, 1908, was ordained as a priest while in Austria on July 29, 1923, and for 55 years he served humanity faithfully,” Pete explained. “He was an instructor, an explorer, a military advisor and he was servant of the Lord always. His personal letters to his religious superiors were so respectful and sincere. Perhaps his most proud moment was a private audience with Pope Pius XII where Father Hubbard presented to His Holiness an Inuit carving of the statue of Christ the King that his team erected on King Island in 1937.”
Father Hubbard’s lecture series generated enough money not only to fund his expeditions the following year but to donate over $50,000 to the Alaska Missions and for hospitals and orphanages. “From the Sisters of Saint Ann in Juneau to Father Bellarmine Lafortune in Nome and King Island, Father Hubbard was always welcome, and always full of the Holy Spirit to energize those missionaries in the most remote locations,” Pete said.
We’ll post the third and final part of our interview with Pete the week of April 1, 2019.
Header image credit:
Fr. Hubbard, the “Glacier Priest,” saying Mass in Aniakchak Crater, Alaska. “This scene was eliminated by National Geographic from my lecture. I refused to go on stage until they put it back.” B.R. Hubbard, S.J.
Photo courtesy of the Santa Clara University Library, Archives & Special Collections Digital Collections.