Pioneer Bishops of Connecticut

This blog will discuss bishops that served in Connecticut up to 1900.  For more information about Connecticut, see my blog of November 25, 2016.

Several English settlements, including Hartford, were established in what is now Connecticut in the 1630s.  Almost all of the white residents of Connecticut were English Puritans (later referred to as Congregationalists) up until the 1840s when Irish immigrants came in great numbers.  In 1639 the people of Connecticut adopted the first written constitution in history—the “Fundamental Orders."  This document was considered progressive at the time as citizens were provided a great deal of autonomy from the King of England.  Nevertheless, under this constitution, Congregationalism was the established church supported by tax dollars.  This remained true until the Constitution was rewritten in 1818.

By the early 1830s, there were enough Catholics, about 700, to support churches in Hartford and New Haven.  Pope Gregory XVI created the Diocese of Hartford in 1843, which at the time consisted of Connecticut and Rhode Island.  At that time, Catholics numbered about 10,000 in the new diocese, about equally divided between the two states.  They were served by only 6 priests.  In the second half of the 19th Century, Irish, Germans, French Canadians, Poles, and Italians, came to Connecticut cities to work in manufacturing jobs.  By 1908, the Catholic population of Connecticut was almost 400,000.  Further growth—the Hartford diocese had the second largest Catholic population of all U.S. dioceses—led Pope Pius XII to create the Province of Hartford in 1953, comprising the Archdiocese of Hartford, the Diocese of Providence (Rhode Island), and the newly created Dioceses of Bridgeport and Norwich in Connecticut.

William Tyler was born in Vermont in 1806.  He was one of eight children of a Protestant farmer and his wife.  Tyler’s uncle and cousin had been Protestant ministers who converted to Catholicism and Tyler himself converted as a teenager.  He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Boston in 1829.  Tyler served as a priest in Boston and Maine before becoming vicar general for the Diocese.  Tyler was appointed the first Bishop of Hartford, Connecticut, in 1843, but chose to live in Providence, Rhode Island—his Diocese consisted of all Connecticut and Rhode Island.  Of the 10,000 Catholics in his diocese, only 600 lived in Hartford, versus 2,000 in Providence.  Bishop Tyler, with financial help from the Vatican, expanded the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul in Providence.  He was an active pastor for the Cathedral parish—starting a school, providing food and money to the poor, and encouraging temperance.  He led a poor diocese and struggled to find sufficient funds to carry out the Church’s mission, especially with increased numbers of Irish and German immigrants.  He often visited the poor and sick and he recruited priests from Ireland to serve in the Diocese.  He died in 1849 of rheumatic fever at which time the Diocese had 12 churches and 14 priests.

Bernard O’Reilly was born in Ireland in 1803 and came to the United States in 1825.  He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of New York in 1831 and served in parishes in Brooklyn and Rochester.  While in Brooklyn, O’Reilly was noted for his care for victims of an 1832 cholera outbreak, despite falling ill himself on two occasions.  He was appointed vicar general for the Diocese of Buffalo in 1847 and was named the second Bishop of Hartford, Connecticut, in 1850.  The diocese consisted then of Connecticut and Rhode Island.  Like his predecessor, Bishop O’Reilly took up residence in Province, Rhode Island, rather than Hartford.  There were about 45,000 Catholics in the Diocese in 1850, served by only a dozen priests and a similar number of parishes.  O’Reilly recruited priests from Ireland and was able to expand the number of churches in the Diocese to 34 during his six-year tenure as Bishop.  He also invited the Irish Mercy Sisters to teach in Providence’s Catholic schools.  The growing numbers of Irish in Providence concerned the anti-Catholic Know-Nothing Party.  Two thousand men and boys gathered near the Mercy Sisters’ convent in 1855.  Bishop O'Reilly and Mayor Edward Knowles of Providence met with the crowd, who eventually dispersed peacefully.  O’Reilly wrote newspaper articles defending Catholicism.  Bishop O’Reilly went to Ireland in 1855 to recruit priests.  Returning early the next year, his steamship sank in the Irish Sea, with no survivors.

Francis P. MacFarland was born in 1819 in Pennsylvania.  His parents were both born in Ireland.  MacFarland worked as a teacher as a young man, but soon entered Mount St. Mary’s College in Maryland and was ordained a priest in 1845 for the Diocese of New York.  He was initially assigned to teach at what is now Fordham University and he later served at St. Joseph’s Church in Greenwich Village.  In 1846, he was assigned upstate to Watertown.  This became part of the new Diocese of Albany in 1847 and MacFarland became a priest for the new Diocese.  

MacFarland was named Bishop of Hartford in 1858, after declining the appointment as Vicar Apostolic of Florida the previous year.  Bishop MacFarland also lived in Providence, at least initially.  MacFarland made frequent pastoral visits to all the parishes in the Diocese and also spoke frequently with Protestant groups which dampened anti-Catholicism which was strong in Connecticut in the 1850s.  The Civil War led to the growth in manufacturing facilities in Connecticut and Rhode Island and brought Irish, French-Canadian, and German immigrants to work in the factories and mills.  This led to him inviting several religious orders to work in the Diocese and it also led to the need for more churches, which Bishop MacFarland built and staffed with new priests—he ordained 34 priests between 1867 and 1871.  He established the first national church (one specifically for an immigrant group) in 1868—St. Boniface for the Germans in New Haven.  This growth also led to the establishment of a separate diocese for Rhode Island—the Diocese of Providence—in 1872.  This left the Diocese of Hartford with 140,000 Catholics in 76 parishes served by 77 priests.  Bishop MacFarland moved to Hartford and began the efforts that led to the construction of the first Cathedral of St. Joseph prior to his death in 1874.  He left many writings and theological books to the Diocese.

Thomas Galberry was born in Ireland in 1833 and moved with his family in 1836 to Philadelphia.  He later studied at Villanova College and joined the Augustinian Order in 1852.  He taught at Villanova and was ordained an Augustinian priest in 1856.  He served at parishes in Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts before being named President of Villanova College in 1872, a position he held until 1876.  He was also named first Augustinian Provincial for the United States in 1874.  Pope Pius IX appointed him Bishop of Hartford, Connecticut, but Galberry initially declined the appointment.  He accepted in 1876 under obedience to the Pope.

Bishop Galberry initiated construction of the first Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford in 1877, established other parishes, and established a diocesan newspaper.  He discouraged Catholic ethnicity in favor of an American identity.  Not in good health, he died of a hemorrhage in 1878 on his way to Villanova, where he hoped to recover his health. 

Lawrence S. McMahon was born in Canada in 1835 and moved with his parents to Boston in 1839.  He studied in Massachusetts, Canada, Baltimore, and France, before being ordained a priest for the Diocese of Boston in 1860.  He served at the cathedral in Boston before being assigned as a chaplain to a Massachusetts regiment fighting in the Civil War. After the war, he served as a pastor in Massachusetts before being named vicar general of the new Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island, in 1872.  He was appointed Bishop of Hartford in 1879.

Bishop McMahon established 48 new parishes—including national parishes for Poles, Lithuanians, Italians, and French Canadians—and many new schools.  He was also responsible for completing the construction of the first Cathedral of St. Joseph—including the collection of more than $500,000 to pay for it.  While McMahon served as Bishop, Father Michael McGivney organized a group of Catholic men in New Haven in 1882, who became the first Knights of Columbus.  These first Knights were mostly Irish, but Bishop McMahon ensured that the Knights were open to all Catholic men.  Bishop McMahon died in 1893.

Michael Tierney was born in Ireland in 1839 and came to Norwalk, Connecticut, with his parents in 1850.  He studied in Kentucky and New York before being ordained a priest for the Diocese of Hartford in 1866.  He served at parishes in Rhode Island and Connecticut and served as chancellor for the Diocese.  He was appointed Bishop of Hartford in 1894—the first priest of the Diocese to become its bishop. 

Bishop Tierney established St. Thomas Seminary, a home for the aged, an industrial school, and five hospitals, as well as many new parishes and schools.  He tried to visit every parish in the diocese at least once a year, supported labor unions and temperance, and embraced Catholic ethnicity.  He ordered a standardized school curriculum, improved teacher training, and established a missionary group to hold retreats for Catholics and non-Catholics.   He died in 1908.  During his tenure, the number of Diocesan Catholics increased from 250,000 to 395,000, the number of parishes from 98 to 166, and the number of schools from 48 to 76.