Pioneer Bishops of Massachusetts

This blog will discuss bishops that served in Massachusetts up to 1900.  For more information about Massachusetts, see my blog of September 17, 2017.

Various European explorers visited what is now Massachusetts, possibly as early as the year 1000, but colonization did not occur until the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620 and the Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1628.  The Pilgrims and the Puritans were Protestant fundamentalists who thought the Church of England had not done enough to rid itself of all vestiges of Catholicism and thus they were highly intolerant of Catholics.  Early laws prohibited any practice of Catholicism, which meant that there were few Catholics in the colony until after the American Revolution.  The Massachusetts colony was a theocracy and anti-Catholic laws were not repealed until well into the 19th Century—well after Massachusetts became the sixth State in 1788.

There were enough French and Irish Catholics in Boston to establish the first parish in New England in 1788.  Pope Pius VII created the Diocese of Boston in 1808—one of the first six U.S. dioceses—to serve all of New England.  Boston was then the fourth largest city in the United States.  Large numbers of Irish came to Massachusetts in the first half of the 19th Century and especially in the 1840s.  By 1853, Catholics made up 40 percent of Boston’s population, and by 1900, well over half the population of Boston was Catholic.  The population of the State doubled between 1810 and 1850 and more than tripled between 1850 and 1910.  Pope Pius IX raised Boston to an Archdiocese in 1875. 

Catholics settled in other parts of Massachusetts as well.  Irish immigrants started arriving in western Massachusetts by the 1820s to build railroads and canals and to work in factories.  Massachusetts Catholics received full political liberty in 1820.  By 1840, parishes had been established in Worcester and Chicopee.  The Irish were followed by other immigrants, including French Canadians, Italians, Lithuanians, and Poles.  Pope Pius IX created the Diocese of Springfield in 1870 to serve the western part of the State.  Pope Pius XII created the Diocese of Worcester in 1950.  Catholics had settled in southeastern Massachusetts as well.  Parishes were established in New Bedford in 1821 and Fall River in 1838.  Large numbers of immigrants, especially from Portugal and Cape Verde, came here around 1900.  Between 1890 and 1910, eight parishes were established in both Fall River and New Bedford to serve the new immigrants.  Pope Pius X established the Diocese of Fall River in 1904—Fall River was the State’s third largest city at that time.

John L. de Cheverus was born in France in 1768 and ordained a priest there in 1790.  He fled to England in 1792 to escape the French Revolution and came to Boston in 1796.  He and another priest ministered to a small number of French and Irish Catholics in Boston and a group of Native American Catholics in northern Maine—he spoke several Native American languages.  Cheverus built Holy Cross Church on Franklin Street in 1803, which became his Cathedral in 1808 when he was named the first Bishop of Boston.  Bishop Cheverus traveled throughout his Diocese, often on foot, which included all of New England, to spread the Faith and administer the Sacraments. As if he wasn’t busy enough, he also served as apostolic administrator of New York from 1810 to 1815.  

Perhaps Cheverus’ greatest accomplishment was gaining the respect of Boston’s Protestants, who had often viewed Catholics negatively.  Cheverus first earned Protestants’ respect for his care of all people during a yellow fever epidemic in 1798.  Over the years, he befriended John Adams and other political leaders and several Protestant ministers—some Puritan ministers invited him to preach in their churches.  Many non-Catholics financially supported the construction of Holy Cross Church.  He also made a number of converts to the Faith.  Cheverus also supported the establishment of the first U.S. chartered savings bank in 1816 to inspire thrift among Catholics.  He returned to France in 1823 at the request of the French king and was appointed Bishop of Montauban, France in 1824.  He later became Cardinal-Archbishop of Bordeaux, and he died in 1836.  

Benedict J. Fenwick was born in 1782 into a Maryland Catholic family that traced its roots to the original Catholic settlers of Maryland.  His older brother became a prominent Jesuit priest, and his cousin Edward became Bishop of Cincinnati.  Fenwick enrolled at Georgetown College (now University) in Washington, DC, in 1793 and eventually became a professor.  He entered seminary in 1805 and was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1808.   Fenwick had a busy priesthood, first serving in New York at St. Peter’s Church, then the only Catholic church in New York City.  He later served as pastor of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, started a school that was located “far out in the country” and now the location of the current St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and served for a time as apostolic administrator for the Diocese of New York.  He also spent time in Washington, where he served as president of Georgetown College and pastor of Holy Trinity Church, and in Charleston, South Carolina, where he was sent to settle a dispute between English and French parishioners of St. Mary’s Church.

Fenwick was appointed Bishop of Boston in 1825 at which time his diocese consisted of all of New England with less than 10,000 Catholics, four churches, and two other priests.  Unfortunately, much of the goodwill between Catholics and Protestants brought about by Bishop Cheverus was quickly disappearing with the immigration of large numbers of Irish Catholics to the area.  An Ursuline convent and school near Boston was attacked by a mob of 2,000 Protestants in 1834 who burned the convent to the ground causing the nuns to flee and eventually move to Canada.  Riots broke out in 1837 and a Catholic church in Vermont was burned in 1838.  Fenwick received death threats, but tried to diminish the hatred through lectures and the publication of pamphlets explaining Catholicism to Protestants.  Fenwick established a seminary, built schools, and established a Jesuit college—Holy Cross—in Worcester in 1843.  He established a weekly Catholic newspaper (now known at The Pilot)—one of the nation’s first—and invited religious orders, including the Ursuline Sisters and the Sisters of Charity, to establish schools and orphanages and serve the poor.  Fenwick also established rules and procedures for the Diocese.  Fenwick died of a heart condition in 1846 at which time the Diocese, then consisting of the four northern New England States, had 70,000 Catholics served by about 40 priests and 40 churches.

John B. Fitzpatrick was born in Boston in 1812, seven years after his parents left Ireland.  His father was a tailor, and his maternal grandfather was an American Revolutionary War veteran.  Fitzpatrick attended seminary in Montreal and Paris and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Boston in Paris in 1840.  He served at parishes in the Boston area and was named coadjutor bishop of Boston in 1843 and became the third Bishop of Boston in 1846 upon the death of Bishop Benedict Fenwick.

Bishop Fitzpatrick served at a difficult time for Irish Catholics in New England.  Many new Irish immigrants came there as a result of the potato famine in the late 1840s and were often met with hostility by non-Catholics.  In 1854, mobs burned three churches in Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire, and tarred and feathered a priest in Maine.  Bishop Fitzpatrick urged Catholics to obey the law and he resorted to legal action to protect the rights of Catholics.  Catholics (especially the Irish) became more socially prominent and financially prosperous after the Civil War and Bishop Fitzpatrick was able to get Catholics to serve on Boston’s school board to prevent further mistreatment of Catholic students in public schools (usually administered by Protestants).  Fitzpatrick established orphanages and over 70 new churches and was responsible for founding Boston College in 1863.  He also established lay organizations in the Diocese such as Sodality and the Society for the Propagation of the Faith and started building more parish schools. Fitzpatrick appointed James Healy, the first African American to be ordained a priest, as the first chancellor of the Diocese in 1855.  Bishop Fitzpatrick died in 1866.

John J. Williams was born in Boston in 1822 to Irish immigrant parents.  He attended a seminary in Montreal from 1833 to 1841 and then attended a seminary in Paris.  He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Boston in 1845.  Williams served first at Holy Cross Cathedral in Boston and eventually became rector.  He later became pastor of St. James parish and Vicar General of the Diocese.  He was appointed coadjutor bishop of Boston in 1866 and a month later became Bishop upon the death of Bishop Fitzpatrick.  Williams became the first Archbishop of Boston in 1875.

Archbishop Williams spent much of his time accommodating the large numbers of immigrants coming to Massachusetts.  His diocese grew from 300,000 Catholics in 1866 to 600,000 thirty years later, despite the creation of new dioceses, and he often dedicated as many as ten new churches each year.  These immigrants were not only Irish, but included French Canadian, Italian, Portuguese, Scottish, German, Syrian, Lithuanian, and Polish Catholics—all of whom wanted priests that spoke their language and parishes that respected their culture.  Archbishop Williams often stood up to those who oppressed the new immigrants.  A sign of changing times was the election in 1885 of Hugh O’Brien, Boston’s first Catholic mayor.  Williams established many new schools, hospitals and orphanages, St. John's Seminary at Brighton, and dedicated the new Cathedral of the Holy Cross.  He created a marriage tribunal and centralized control of Catholic schools.  He was one of the bishops most responsible for the establishment of the North American College in Rome.  Archbishop Williams died in 1907.

Patrick T. O’Reilly was born in Ireland in 1833 and he and his family later moved to Boston.  He attended seminary in Maryland and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Boston in 1857.  After ordination, he served at parishes in Worcester and Boston before being named the first Bishop of Springfield in 1870.  At the time, he was the youngest bishop in the United States.  Bishop O’Reilly saw the number of Diocesan Catholics more than double and he ordained 150 new priests, opened 53 parishes, built 28 schools, and invited over 300 nuns to work in the Diocese.  He helped establish the hospital of the Sisters of Providence in Holyoke and the orphan homes in Holyoke and Worcester.  He died in 1892 of nephritis.

Thomas D. Beaven was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1851, and graduated from what is now Holy Cross University in 1870.  After attending seminary in Montreal, he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Springfield in 1875.  He served as a pastor in Spencer and later in Holyoke before being named the second Bishop of Springfield in 1892.  Bishop Beaven established several organizations to serve the needy, including homes for infants, orphans, single working women, and the elderly.  He built four hospitals, started a monthly diocesan newspaper, and encouraged many priestly and religious vocations.  Beaven also started parishes for Poles, Italians, Lithuanians, Slovaks, and Maronite-rite Catholics.  He traveled around Springfield by trolley rather than by his private carriage.  He died in 1920.