Pioneer Bishops of Alabama

This blog will discuss bishops that served in Alabama up to 1900.  For more information about Alabama, see my blog of March 18, 2017.

Alabama became part of the Vicariate Apostolic of Mississippi and Alabama in 1822, the Vicariate Apostolic of Alabama and the Floridas in 1826, and the Diocese of Mobile in 1829.  The Diocese of Mobile was renamed the Diocese of Mobile-Birmingham in 1954 and in 1969, Pope Pius VI created a separate Diocese of Birmingham.  Pope John Paul II created the Province of Mobile in 1980, raising Mobile to the rank of an Archdiocese.

Michael Portier was born in France in 1795.  He was attending seminary in Lyon when he was recruited by an American bishop, Louis Dubourg.  Portier traveled to the United States in 1817 with Dubourg and about 30 other missionary recruits.  Upon their arrival, they spent two months with Charles Carroll in Maryland.  Portier resumed his seminary studies at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas by Bishop Dubourg in St. Louis in 1818.  Portier worked among the victims of a Yellow Fever epidemic until he himself became ill.  Upon his recovery, Dubourg sent Portier to New Orleans, the seat of the diocese.  Portier served as vicar general for the Diocese until 1825 when he was named the first Vicar Apostolic of Alabama and the Floridas.  He became the first Bishop of Mobile in 1829.

When he first came to Mobile, Portier found that he was the only priest serving 6,000 French, Spanish, German, and African-American Catholics in three parishes—in Mobile, St. Augustine, Florida, and Pensacola, Florida, in a territory that originally included Florida, Alabama, and Arkansas.  As bishop, he provided pastoral care throughout his jurisdiction, established new parishes (including ones in Montgomery and Selma), and consecrated the current Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in 1850 (to replace his original 1,000 square foot cathedral).  He recruited priests from Europe and invited religious orders, including the Visitation Sisters, the Daughters of Charity, and the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, to establish schools and orphanages.  He also founded Spring Hill College and Providence Hospital.  By 1850, the Diocese included only the State of Alabama.  At the time of Portier’s death in 1859, the Diocese had 10,000 Catholics served by 10 priests in 9 parishes and 9 missions.

John Quinlan was born in Ireland in 1826, came to the United States, in 1844 and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Cincinnati in 1852. Quinlan was appointed the second Bishop of Mobile in 1859.  He led the Diocese during the troubled days of the Civil War and ministered to soldiers of both sides after the Battle of Shiloh.  After the war, he repaired damaged church buildings and was able to establish several new parishes, including the first Catholic parishes in Birmingham, Huntsville, Florence, and Decatur.  He invited Benedictine monks from Pennsylvania to establish St. Bernard Abbey in Cullman in 1876.  He also brought priests from Ireland to serve the Diocese.  He died in 1883 at which time there were 18,000 Alabama Catholics served by 45 priests.

Dominic Manucy was born in 1823 in St. Augustine, Florida, to Majorcan parents.  (His first cousin was Anthony Pellicer, who became Bishop of San Antonio, Texas.)  Manucy was educated at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Mobile in 1850.  He spent most of his young priesthood serving in Montgomery, Alabama, until 1874, when he was named the first Vicar Apostolic of Brownsville, Texas.  (An apostolic vicariate is a missionary diocese.)  Manucy was appointed third Bishop of Mobile, Alabama, in early 1884, while retaining his position as Vicar Apostolic of Brownsville.  He resigned as Bishop of Mobile in September 1884 planning to return to Texas, but he died in early 1885 before he could do so.

Jeremiah O’Sullivan was born in Ireland in 1842 and came to the United States in 1863.  He attended seminary in Baltimore and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Baltimore in 1868.  He served at parishes in Maryland and Washington, DC, (including as pastor of St. Peter’s Church in Washington) before being named Bishop of Mobile in 1885.  Bishop O’Sullivan built the towers for the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and restored financial stability to the Diocese.  He traveled extensively throughout the Diocese and established many new churches and schools.  He died in 1896.

Edward P. Allen was born in Massachusetts in 1853 to Irish parents and attended Mount St. Mary’s college and seminary in Maryland.  He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Boston in 1881.  He returned to Massachusetts in 1882 and in Boston and Framingham and was a prison chaplain.  He returned to Mount St. Mary’s in 1884 to serve as vice president and treasurer before becoming president in 1885.  Allen was appointed Bishop of Mobile in 1897.

Bishop Allen built many new churches, schools, and other institutions, including some to replace those destroyed by a 1906 hurricane.  He also built hospitals in Mobile, Birmingham, and Montgomery.  He ministered to the needs of African Americans by inviting the Josephite Fathers to establish missions and created St. Joseph’s College and a fraternal organization—the Knights of St. Peter Claver—for African American men.  The number of Catholics in the Diocese increased from 20,000 to 50,000 during Allen’s time as Bishop, due in part to immigrants coming to work in the Birmingham steel mills and others coming to work at the newly established Maxwell Air Force Base at Montgomery.  Allen was able to double the number of priests.  Bishop Allen died in 1926.