Pioneer Bishops of Maine

This blog will discuss bishops that served in Maine up to 1900.  For more information about Maine, see my blog of September 27, 2017.

Europeans explored the coast of Maine possibly as early as 990, but it took until 1604 for French explorers to establish a settlement on St. Croix Island, near Calais.  The first Mass in New England was celebrated here by Father Nicholas Aubry.  This French settlement was abandoned as were others.  Sir Ferdinando Gorges was awarded control of Maine by King James I of England in 1622 and permanent settlements were made at various places, including Portland, Saco, and Biddeford in the early 1630s.  Massachusetts bought Gorges’ land in 1677 and Maine became part of Massachusetts in 1691.  It remained part of Massachusetts until it became the 23rd State in 1820.

Missions were established along many of Maine’s rivers throughout the 17th Century and the early 18th Century and French missionaries, especially Jesuits, successfully converted many of Maine’s Native Americans to the Faith.  St. Ann Church in Old Town was established in 1688 and is the oldest parish in New England.  These missions were the first Catholic places of worship in New England.  The Catholic French and Protestant British were often at war at this time in history and British forces began their attempts to destroy the French missions in the 17th Century.  A major campaign of destruction by British forces from Massachusetts began in 1704 and by 1731 all of the Catholic missionaries were killed or forced out of Maine.

Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore, the United States’ first Bishop, sent Father John Cheverus to Maine in 1789 to visit the Native Americans who had been without a priest for almost 60 years.  French and Irish Catholics started coming to Maine after the American Revolution and Father Cheverus established St. Patrick’s Church in Newcastle in 1796.  By 1850, there were a dozen parishes in Maine.  Pope Pius IX created the Diocese of Portland in 1853 to serve Catholics in Maine (except for the Madawaska territory in Northern Maine) and New Hampshire.  The Madawaska territory became part of the Diocese of Portland in 1870 and New Hampshire became a separate diocese in 1884.  Portland had 21,000 people in 1850 and was and is the largest city in Maine.

David W. Bacon was born in New York City in 1815 and ordained a priest for the Diocese of New York in 1838.  For the next 17 years, he served in parishes in New York City, upstate New York, and northern New Jersey.  Pope Pius IX created the Diocese of Portland, Maine, in 1853 to serve Catholics in Maine (except for a portion of northern Maine) and New Hampshire.  The anti-Catholic attitudes of many Protestants in Maine during the 1850s—churches were burned at Bath and Lewiston and a priest was tarred and feathered—led to the decision by Father Henry Coskery of Baltimore to decline the honor of being Portland’s first Bishop in 1853.  Two years later, Bacon, having accepted the position, arrived in Portland at night wearing non-clerical clothing to avoid trouble.  

Bacon found a Diocese with 8 churches and 6 priests.  Despite the inauspicious start, Bishop Bacon built many churches—including the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception—and other buildings, including two dozen schools.  He also recruited priests from Ireland.  Bacon was a skilled administrator and orator.  At the time of his death in 1874 (on his way back from Rome), the Diocese was well established with 75,000 Catholics served by 52 priests, 63 churches, and 22 schools.

James A. Healy was born in 1830 in Georgia to an Irish father and a mulatto slave mother.  James was the oldest of ten children and was educated in the North—his father was a successful plantation owner.  Healy was the valedictorian of the first graduating class of the College of Holy Cross in Massachusetts in 1849.  He went on to attend seminary in Montreal and Paris and was ordained as a priest for the Diocese of Boston in 1854.  Although he was technically the first African American to be ordained to the priesthood, he identified as Irish American and most people did not know of his African ancestry.  He served as a pastor in Boston for the next two decades, including as pastor of St. James Church, then the largest parish in Boston.   

Healy was appointed the second Bishop of Portland in 1875 and became the first African American bishop in the United States, although again most people did not know of his ancestry.  As Bishop, Healy established many churches and schools, but was especially noted for his concern for children and the poor, for which he established several institutions and organizations for their care.  He established missions in many smaller towns and his fluency in French was helpful in ministering to Maine’s Acadian population, which increased greatly during his tenure.  Healy was a noted orator and also made significant contributions in Church law at the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884.  Bishop Healy had two sisters who became nuns and two brothers who were priests, including one who served as president of what is now Georgetown University.  Bishop Healy died in 1900.