Chicago was still feeling he effects of the Great Fire of 1871 which destroyed many of the schools and churches . Feehan accommodated these diverse needs by creating parishes to serve ethnic communities and recruited religious orders from their home countries to staff them . Of the 140 parishes he founded , 52 percent served a particular ethnic community . According to Rev. Martin Zielinski , an associate professor of Catholic history at Mundelein Seminary , the parishes provided a place where immigrants could find familiar fraternal organizations , music , and language . They served as a haven from xenophobia and hostility directed toward immigrants and Catholics . Feehan also brought the Vincentians start what is now DePaul University
Great Fire
Great Chicago Fire
Patrick Feehan