Pioneer Bishops of Rhode Island

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

Roger Williams was a Massachusetts Puritan who firmly believed in the separation of church and state.  This led to his banishment from Massachusetts in 1635.  The next year he founded the city of Providence and the colony of Rhode Island.  In 1638, Williams founded the First Baptist Church in Providence—the first Baptist church in the United States.

Charles II, King of England, granted Rhode Island a colonial charter in 1663 that granted, among other things, freedom of religion and prohibited state support of any religion—a rare concept at the time.  (It should be noted that Rhode Island is the home of the oldest synagogue in the United States—Touro Synagogue in Newport—founded in 1763.)  However, Catholics were an exception to this freedom—they were denied the right to vote or hold public office—until the law was changed in 1783.  Few Catholics were impacted by this legislation.  The first public mass in Rhode Island was said in 1780 for French soldiers and sailors, who were, ironically, in Rhode Island helping the American colonies win their independence from Great Britain.

But there were few American Catholics in Rhode Island—by 1828 the number of Catholics in Rhode Island was estimated to be less than one thousand, mostly of Irish or French heritage.  In that year, Bishop Benedict Fenwick of Boston sent Father Robert Woodley to minister to Catholics in Rhode Island and in portions of eastern Massachusetts.  By 1837, there were Catholic churches in Newport (St. Mary in 1828), Pawtucket (St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in 1829), and Providence (SS. Peter and Paul in 1837). 

Irish Catholic immigrants started coming to Rhode Island in great numbers in the 1840s due to the potato famine in Ireland.  They were followed by French Canadians who came to work in the cotton mills, and by later in the 19th Century, by Italians.  This growth led to the creation in 1872 of the Diocese of Providence.  At the time, the diocese consisted of Rhode Island and portions of eastern Massachusetts.  With the creation, in 1904, of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, the boundaries of the Diocese of Rhode Island were the same as the State of Rhode Island.

Rhode Island became part of the new Diocese of Hartford in 1843 and the first three Bishops of Hartford chose to live in Providence, rather than Hartford, due to the fact that Providence had a larger population of Catholics and of total residents.  The administrations of Hartford Bishops William Tyler, Bernard O’Reilly, and Francis MacFarland are discussed in the Pioneer Bishops of Connecticut blog.

Thomas F. Hendricken was born in Ireland in 1827.  He attended seminary in Ireland and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Hartford, Connecticut, in 1851.  On the voyage to the United States, Hendricken gave last rites to a dying woman and the ship’s captain, who feared the spread of disease and was also a member of an anti-Catholic group, beat Hendricken almost to death.  He was saved by German Protestants who protected him the rest of the voyage.  He served in parishes in Rhode Island (then part of the Hartford diocese) and Connecticut.  While in Waterbury, Connecticut, he dedicated a new church to the Immaculate Conception, the first in the United States.  He also accompanied a young Michael McGivney to seminary in Canada—McGivney went on to establish the Knights of Columbus and is now Blessed Michael McGivney.  Hendricken became a U.S. citizen in 1870 and was appointed the first Bishop of Providence, Rhode Island, in 1872.

Hendricken began construction of the current Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in 1878 and brought in religious orders to operate schools and a home for the elderly.  He also faced a crisis when a French-Canadian parish objected to his choice of pastor saying that a bishop was obligated to appoint a pastor of the same ethnic background as the congregation.  (The Vatican initially agreed with the laity but reversed its decision in the wake of objections from American bishops.)  Bishop Hendricken also won the right for priests to minister to Catholic inmates in state prisons.  He also established a diocesan newspaper in 1875 and established more than a dozen parishes to keep up with population growth, especially by Irish and French-Canadian immigrants.  The Catholic population of the Diocese, which at that time consisted of Rhode Island and part of Massachusetts, increased from 125,000 to 195,000 during Hendricken’s tenure as Bishop.  He died in 1886.

Matthew Harkins was born in Boston in 1845 to Irish immigrant parents.  He completed his seminary training in France and was ordained in Paris as a priest for the Diocese of Boston in 1869.  He served at several parishes in the Boston area and as a theologian to Archbishop John Williams until his appointment in 1887 as the second Bishop of Providence.

Bishop Harkins established new parishes and schools to meet the needs of the large numbers of Catholic immigrants that came to Rhode Island at the turn of the 20th Century—including 12 parishes for French Canadians, seven for Italians, six for the Poles, and two for the Portuguese.  He more than tripled the number of diocesan priests and built institutions, often staffed by religious orders, to serve the neediest among his flock—the poor, the sick, the elderly, and orphans.  He helped win repeal of a law passed by anti-Catholic legislators that removed the tax exemption from private and parochial schools.  He also helped establish Providence College in 1919 and sent his priests to universities to raise their educational levels.  At the time of his death in 1921, there were over 275,000 Catholics in the Diocese in 101 parishes served by 270 diocesan priests, despite the loss of the Massachusetts portion of the Diocese in 1904. 

Pioneer Bishops of Pennsylvania

This blog will discuss bishops that served in Pennsylvania up to 1900.  For more information about Pennsylvania, see my blog of August 13, 2018.

French and Dutch explorers came to what is now Pennsylvania as early as 1615 and the first Catholic priest to visit Pennsylvania is thought to be Father John Pierron who came from Canada in 1673.  European settlement began in 1681, when King Charles II of England paid a debt that he owed to William Penn by granting him the title to what is now the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  Penn held convictions about democracy and religious liberty that were not common at the time.  In 1682, the leaders of the new colony wrote the “Frame of Government” which allowed for a Provincial Council and a General Assembly to be elected by the people.  (Catholics were not allowed to hold public office.)  It also allowed religious toleration and freedom of worship for people who believed in one God (which included Christians, Jews, and Muslims, but excluded atheists and pagans).  Queen Anne changed this in 1706 to exclude Jews and Muslims as well. 

Freedom of worship was a right not enjoyed by the few Catholics in the other English Colonies—Maryland Catholics having lost their right to public worship in 1689.  The freedom enjoyed in Pennsylvania allowed Jesuit priests to travel to Pennsylvania from Bohemia Manor, in northeastern Maryland, starting in 1704, to minister to Pennsylvania Catholics.  It also allowed a Jesuit priest, Joseph Greaton, to establish St. Joseph’s Church in Philadelphia in 1733.  The congregation consisted of about three dozen Irish and Germans.  By 1757, there were about 1,300 Catholics in Pennsylvania, mostly living in or near Philadelphia, and who were 70 percent German and 30 percent Irish. Two additional Philadelphia churches were started to minister to new immigrants—St. Mary’s (Irish) in 1763 and Holy Trinity (German) in 1789.

Catholics, mostly Germans, settled in other eastern Pennsylvania towns as well.  Prior to the American Revolution, there were Catholic churches in Lancaster (1741), Bally (1741), Elizabethtown (1752), Reading (1752), and York (1776).  The most important was Conewago Chapel, founded by Father Greaton in 1730.  Jesuits from Conewago ministered to Catholics in western Pennsylvania, western Maryland, and the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.  Many of the priests serving the Catholics of Pennsylvania were European, especially English (Father Greaton and Father Robert Molyneux) and German (Father William Wappeler and Father Ferdinand Schneider, also known as Ferdinand Farmer) and most were Jesuits.

The French built Fort Duquesne (site of current day Pittsburgh) in 1754 and built a chapel dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  This was likely the first Catholic church in Western Pennsylvania.  The English destroyed Fort Duquesne and the chapel in 1758 and replaced it with Fort Pitt.  But Catholicism gradually returned to Western Pennsylvania.  Priests started to visit scattered Catholic communities in 1785, a Catholic school was established on the site of present-day St. Vincent’s Archabbey in 1787, and a congregation formed in Greensburg in 1789.  Father Demetrius Gallitzin (who was a Russian prince and the second priest ordained in the United States and now a Servant of God) established a church at what is now Loretto (Cambria County) in 1799.  The first parish in Pittsburgh (St. Patrick’s) was established in 1811 and St. Paul’s church was dedicated in 1834.

Since 1789, all of (what was then) the United States had been part of the Diocese of Baltimore.  Pope Pius VII established four new dioceses in 1808, including the Diocese of Philadelphia, which included all of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and parts of New Jersey.  At the time, Philadelphia had a population of over 50,000, of which 10,000 were Catholic.  Pope Gregory XVI created the Diocese of Pittsburgh in 1843 at which time Pittsburgh was the largest city in western Pennsylvania with a population of about 20,000.  The Diocese of Erie was established in 1853 and the Dioceses of Harrisburg and Scranton in 1868.  Pope Pius IX created the Province of Philadelphia in 1875 and raised the see of Philadelphia to the status of an Archdiocese.  The Diocese of Allegheny City (now part of the City of Pittsburgh) was established in 1877 but was suppressed in 1889.  The Diocese of Altoona was established in 1901 (it became the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown in 1957), the Diocese of Greensburg was created in 1951 and the Diocese of Allentown was established in 1961.

Michael F. Egan was born in Ireland in 1761 and ordained a Franciscan priest in 1785.  He served in Rome and Ireland before coming to Pennsylvania in 1802.  He was appointed the first Bishop of Philadelphia in 1808, but because of war in Europe, Egan was not aware of his appointment until 1810.  His Diocese, which included all of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and part of New Jersey, had about 30,000 Catholics and a dozen priests.  Bishop Egan was noted for his preaching abilities and his ability to speak German and he opened many new churches.  Egan had a long-going dispute with the trustees of St. Mary’s Cathedral (where interestingly enough he had been a popular pastor prior to his appointment as bishop).  Several early Catholic churches were built by the parishioners and in the spirit of the new republic, the parishioners elected trustees to administer the parish.  This was not the usual Catholic model, which was based on a European system of church control by each diocesan bishop.  The trustees of St. Mary’s, however, encouraged by renegade priests, wanted to control the appointment and salary of priests and Bishop Egan could not agree to this.  It was unresolved at the time of his death from tuberculosis in 1814.

Henry Conwell was born in Ireland in 1748 and was ordained a priest in 1776.  Conwell served as a priest in Ireland for four decades.  He was well educated and was fluent in Latin, French, Spanish, and Italian, as well as English.  In 1820, Conwell was serving as Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Armagh, Ireland, when the Pope offered him a choice of two appointments:  Madras, India, or Philadelphia.  [Why the Pope would offer a man in his early 70s a choice of two overseas assignments is a good question and for which I do not have an answer.]  Conwell chose Philadelphia because the position had been vacant for 6 years.  As bishop, he continued the fight with the trustees of St. Mary’s Cathedral, but in 1826 signed an agreement that gave them some control over priestly appointments and salaries.  The Vatican was not pleased with the agreement nor with Conwell’s handling of a renegade priest and recalled him to Rome in 1828.  Bishop Conwell was suspended from his duties and control of the Diocese was given to his coadjutor bishop—Francis Kenrick—in 1830.  Conwell, although becoming increasingly senile, continued to perform some of the spiritual duties of Bishop until his death in 1842.

Francis P. Kenrick was born in Ireland in 1797 and ordained a priest in Rome in 1821.  Shortly after his ordination and at the invitation of Bishop Benedict Flaget, Kenrick came to serve the Diocese of Bardstown, Kentucky.  He taught at the diocesan seminary and earned a reputation as a theologian and scripture scholar.  This allowed him to be an effective homilist and a defender of the Catholic Faith in a state that was predominantly Protestant.

Kenrick was appointed coadjutor Bishop of Philadelphia and apostolic administrator in 1830 and became the third Bishop of Philadelphia in 1842.  He resolved the problems related to the trustee system that had plagued his two predecessors (by temporarily closing St. Mary’s Cathedral) and took action to prevent further problems.  Bishop Kenrick established St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, a diocesan newspaper, St. Joseph’s Hospital (Pennsylvania’s first Catholic hospital); and initiated construction of the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul.  He also established schools at most parishes and encouraged the founding of Villanova and St. Joseph colleges.  He led clergy and nuns in ministering to victims of a cholera outbreak in 1832.  Kenrick was forced to leave Philadelphia for a time in 1844 due to anti-Catholic riots—caused in part by Kenrick’s objection to Catholics being taught Protestant theology in public schools—that resulted in the burning of two Catholic churches.  (The population of the Diocese grew from 35,000 in 1830 to 170,000 in 1850 due primarily to immigration from Europe—which the anti-Catholic Know Nothing party opposed.)  His Diocese initially consisted of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and half of New Jersey.  During his time as Bishop, he increased the number of parishes from 22 to 92.  Kenrick was appointed Archbishop of Baltimore in 1851.  He was greatly troubled by the Civil War and died in July 1863 shortly after the Battle of Gettysburg.  Kenrick’s younger brother, Peter, served as the first Archbishop of St. Louis.

John N. Neumann was born in what is now the Czech Republic in 1811 as the third of six children to working class parents.  While attending seminary, Neumann decided to become a missionary in the United States and arrived in New York in 1836.  He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of New York that same year and was assigned to churches (mostly German) in western New York State.  In 1840, Neumann joined the Redemptorist order—he was the first Redemptorist priest ordained in the United States.  He served in Redemptorist parishes in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, and also served as a time for Provincial Superior of the Redemptorists in the United States.

Pope Pius IX appointed Neumann as Bishop of Philadelphia in 1852.  Bishop Neumann’s appointment was favored by Archbishop Kenrick of Baltimore who thought that German-speaking Catholics should have a bishop who spoke German—Neumann spoke at least 6 languages.  Most other U.S. bishops opposed his appointment because they believed he was not qualified.  Neumann was noted for his piety and humility.  He was the first U.S. bishop to organize a diocesan school system and to institute Forty Hours Devotions in his diocese.  Neumann built more than 80 churches (including one for Italians) and made yearly visits to each parish and mission.  He invited religious orders to administer churches and schools, and to assist the poor and needy.  Bishop Neumann died suddenly in 1860 and was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1977—the only U.S. bishop so honored.  His feast day is January 5.

James F. Wood was born in Philadelphia in 1813, four years after his Unitarian parents had moved there from England.  His father was a merchant and James and his family moved to Cincinnati in 1827.  Wood was employed in banking at a young age eventually becoming a cashier in 1836.  Wood had developed a friendship with John Purcell, the Catholic Bishop of Cincinnati, and was baptized in 1836.  The following year, he left the bank and entered the seminary.  Wood was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Cincinnati in 1844.  He served at parishes in Cincinnati until 1857 when he was named coadjutor bishop of Philadelphia.

Wood became Bishop of Philadelphia upon the death of Bishop Neumann in 1860.  He was named the first Archbishop of Philadelphia in 1875. Wood was noted for his knowledge of financial matters, having been a banker.  He moved St. Charles Borromeo Seminary to new facilities in Overbrook and served as treasurer of Rome’s North American College.  Archbishop Wood consecrated the Archdiocese to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and was estimated to have administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to over 100,000 people.  He invited religious orders to work in the Archdiocese and he attended the First Vatican Council in 1870.  When Wood became Bishop in 1870, the Diocese had 200,000 Catholics in eastern Pennsylvania.  At the time of Wood’s death in 1883, the Archdiocese covered only a portion of eastern Pennsylvania and had 300,000 Catholics.

Patrick J. Ryan was born in Ireland in 1831 and attended seminary there.  He came to St. Louis in 1852 and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of St. Louis in 1853.  Ryan served at several parishes in St. Louis until 1868 when he became vicar general for the Archdiocese.  He was named coadjutor bishop of St. Louis in 1872 and became Archbishop of Philadelphia in 1884. 

Archbishop Ryan established 150 new churches and 82 new schools, including Roman Catholic and Hallahan High Schools in Philadelphia.  He expanded hospitals and other institutions for the needy and started over 80 parishes for new ethnic groups.  His concern for Native Americans and African Americans led him to facilitate the founding of St. Katharine Drexel’s Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.  Ryan promoted Catholic journalism and made the Archdiocesan newspaper one of the nation’s best.  He was known as one of the best preachers of his time and his ability to explain the Faith greatly improved relations with non-Catholics.  Archbishop Ryan spoke at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia in 1900 and was the principal speaker at President William McKinley’s memorial service in Philadelphia.  Ryan died in 1911.

Michael J. O’Connor was born in Ireland in 1810 and attended seminary in France and Rome before being ordained to the priesthood in 1833.  O’Connor served in Rome and Ireland until 1839 when he became a professor and soon president of the seminary in Philadelphia.  He was appointed vicar general of western Pennsylvania and pastor of St. Paul’s Church in Pittsburgh in 1841.  O’Connor was appointed the first Bishop of Pittsburgh in 1841.

Bishop O’Connor brought several orders of religious priests and nuns to serve in Western Pennsylvania to better serve the growing number of Catholics—the number of Catholics increased from about 25,000 to 50,000 during his time as bishop.  Among these orders were the Benedictines who established St. Vincent’s Abbey and the Franciscans who settled in Loretto.  He also established a seminary and the “Pittsburgh Catholic” diocesan newspaper—the oldest continuously published Catholic newspaper in the United States.  He built many new churches and provided a chapel to African-Americans.  O’Connor spoke six languages and could read three others and had significant impact on the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.  He resigned as Bishop of Pittsburgh in 1853 to become the first Bishop of Erie, but returned as Bishop of Pittsburgh five months later.  Bishop O’Connor resigned again in 1860 due to poor health and later that year became a Jesuit priest.  He was one of the first faculty members at Boston College and he later became superior of all U.S. Jesuits.  Bishop O’Connor died in 1872 and had a younger brother who served as the first Bishop of Omaha, Nebraska.

Michael Domenec was born in Spain in 1816.  His wealthy parents fled Spain due to a civil war and settled in France.  Domenec eventually became a member of the Vincentian order and came to the Order’s seminary in Perryville, Missouri, around 1838.  He was ordained a priest in 1839.  He initially taught at the seminary before being sent to staff the Vincentian seminary in Philadelphia in 1845.  He also served as pastor of churches in the Philadelphia area.  Domenec was appointed the second Bishop of Pittsburgh in 1860.

Bishop Domenec was a strong advocate of the Union during the Civil War and went to Spain on a mission for the U.S. Government.  Domenec was also noted for his eloquent preaching.  The number of Catholics in the Diocese increased from 50,000 to 200,000 during his time as Bishop and he responded by building 60 new churches and many other buildings and by inviting religious orders to serve in the Diocese.  Bishop Domenec was appointed the first and only Bishop of Allegheny City in 1876.  [Allegheny City is now part of the City of Pittsburgh.  The Diocese of Allegheny City existed from 1877 until 1889 and St. Peter’s Church was the Cathedral for the Diocese.  The decision to create the new Diocese from the Diocese of Pittsburgh, requested by Domenec and approved by the Vatican, was not universally popular in Western Pennsylvania, among either clergy or laity.  Compounding the problem were financial issues, which Bishop Domenec had hoped the division would resolve.]  Bishop Domenec resigned as Bishop of Allegheny City in 1877 and died the following year in Spain.

John Tuigg was born in Ireland in 1820 and was recruited by Bishop O’Connor to come to the United States in 1849.  He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Pittsburgh in 1850.  He served at parishes in Pittsburgh and as secretary to Bishop Domenec until he was sent to Altoona as Vicar General for the eastern part of the Diocese.  He was appointed Bishop of Pittsburgh in 1876.  Bishop Tuigg was the first priest of the Diocese of Pittsburgh to be named its Bishop.  He simultaneously served as Apostolic Administrator for the Diocese of Allegheny City from 1877-1889.  He dealt ably with the division of the two dioceses and with their financial problems, but the stress perhaps contributed to a stroke that he suffered in 1882.  Father Richard Phelan was appointed coadjutor bishop in 1885 and administered both dioceses.  Bishop Tuigg moved to Altoona where he died in 1889.

Richard Phelan was born in Ireland in 1828 as one of nine children—four of whom entered religious life.  He was recruited by Bishop O’Connor to come to the United States in 1850 and he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Pittsburgh in 1854.  He served at parishes in Western Pennsylvania and was appointed pastor of St. Peter’s parish in Allegheny City in 1868.  He built a new church for the parish which became the cathedral of the new Diocese of Allegheny City in 1877.  Because of Bishop Tuigg’s ill health, Phelan was appointed administrator of the Dioceses of Pittsburgh and Allegheny in 1881 and was appointed coadjutor Bishop of Pittsburgh in 1885.  Bishop Phelan, as coadjutor bishop administered both the Diocese of Pittsburgh and the Diocese of Allegheny City until he became Bishop of Pittsburgh in 1889, the same year that the Diocese of Allegheny was suppressed by the Pope.  

Bishop Phelan was an able administrator and had strong financial skills.  He built churches and provided pastors for the large number of immigrants who came to Western Pennsylvania to work in the coal, iron, and steel industries.  Priests often became involved in labor disputes because they could speak both English and the language of the immigrant workers.  Bishop Phelan died in 1904.

Josue M. Young was born in Maine in 1808 as one of ten children of Congregationalist parents.  He converted to Catholicism in 1828 after reading books loaned to him by a co-worker.  He went to Cincinnati in 1830 to attend seminary and was ordained for the Diocese of Cincinnati in 1838.  He spent time as a missionary in the western United States, became pastor of the parish in Lancaster, Ohio, and attended the First Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1852 as a theologian.  He was appointed Bishop of Pittsburgh to succeed Bishop O’Connor who had gone to Erie but was reluctant to accept.  As a result, O’Connor was reappointed in Pittsburgh and Young became Bishop of Erie in 1854.

Bishop Young was a convert to Catholicism who spoke fluent German which helped him minister to German immigrants in the Diocese.  He brought in nuns to establish schools, orphanages, and a hospital and built new churches to accommodate settlers who came to the area due to the discovery of oil in 1859.  He traveled frequently around his Diocese at a time when travel was difficult.  He was a strong supporter of the abolitionist cause before the Civil War and of the Union during the Civil War.  He died in 1866, probably from a heart attack. 

Tobias Mullen was born in Ireland in 1818, the youngest of six sons.  He began studies for the priesthood in Ireland and was recruited by Bishop O’Connor to come to the United States in 1843.  He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Pittsburgh the following year.  Initially assigned to the cathedral in Pittsburgh, Mullen later served at other western Pennsylvania parishes and became vicar general for the Diocese in 1864.  He was appointed Bishop of Erie in 1868.

The Catholic population of the Diocese quadrupled during Mullen’s time as Bishop because of new immigrants.  Bishop Mullen was able to expand diocesan institutions, including parishes, schools, and hospitals, despite the poverty of the people.  Mullen ordained many priests, established a weekly Catholic newspaper, and began construction of St. Peter Cathedral in Erie in 1873.  He suffered a stroke in 1898 while celebrating Mass.  Bishop Mullen retired in 1899 and died in 1900.  

John E. Fitzmaurice was born in Ireland in 1839 (or 1837) and came to Philadelphia in 1858 to enter the seminary.  He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Philadelphia in 1862.  Fitzmaurice served at parishes in Philadelphia until being named rector of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia in 1886.  He was appointed coadjutor bishop of Erie in 1897 and became Bishop of Erie in 1899 upon the retirement of Bishop Mullen.

Bishop Fitzmaurice completed construction of St. Peter Cathedral in 1911 and built new parishes for immigrants from southern and eastern Europe.  He also established several diocesan institutions, including a training school for Boys and a hospital in DuBois and also appointed the first diocesan superintendent of schools.  Bishop Fitzmaurice was a noted homilist.  Fitzmaurice had poor vision all his life and was blind the last few years before his death in 1920.  Fitzmaurice’s nephew, Edmond, later became Bishop of Wilmington, Delaware.

Jeremiah F. Shanahan was born in Silver Lake, Pennsylvania, in 1834.  His parents were both born in Ireland, and he was educated in Binghamton, New York, before entering seminary in Philadelphia.  Shanahan was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Philadelphia in 1859.  He served at the cathedral in Philadelphia and later as rector of the diocesan preparatory seminary.  Shanahan was appointed the first Bishop of Harrisburg in 1868.

Bishop Shanahan’s Diocese covered 10,000 square miles and had about 25,000 Catholics in 40 churches served by two dozen priests.  Bishop Shanahan established a seminary to train new priests and opened several new parish schools to educate immigrant children and to teach them the Catholic Faith.  He did this by inviting several orders of religious sisters to run the schools.  He also convinced wealthier parishes in Philadelphia to help the churches in the Harrisburg diocese reduce their debts.  He also built new churches.  Shanahan attended the first Vatican Council in Rome and the Third Plenary Council in Baltimore.  He died in 1886.

Thomas McGovern born in Ireland in 1832 and came with his family to Pennsylvania the following year.  He was educated at Mount St. Mary’s in Maryland and at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia.  McGovern was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Philadelphia in 1861.  He served at several parishes in the Diocese and was pastor of churches in Bellefonte, York, and Danville.  He traveled overseas from 1881 to 1882 hoping to regain his health.  McGovern was appointed Bishop of Harrisburg in 1887.  Bishop McGovern established several “national” parishes to meet the liturgical needs of various immigrant groups.  He died in 1898.

John W. Shanahan was born in 1846 in Silver Lake, Pennsylvania as a younger brother of Jeremiah Shanahan.  He attended seminary in Philadelphia and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Philadelphia in 1869.  He served as superintendent of Catholic schools for the Diocese prior to being appointed Bishop of Harrisburg in 1899.

Bishop Shanahan built the current St. Patrick’s Cathedral and established 27 new parishes, including some for specific immigrant ethnic groups.  He also established homes for orphaned and needy children—immigrant workers in the coal, steel, and railroad industries often died young and left destitute families behind.  He established the Sisters of Saint Casimir so that the nuns could open the first Lithuanian Catholic school in the United States.  Bishop Shanahan died in 1916.

William O’Hara was born in Ireland in 1816 and came with his parents to Philadelphia in 1820.  After graduating from what is now Georgetown University, he attended seminary in Rome.  He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Philadelphia in 1842.  He was assigned to St. Patrick’s parish in Philadelphia as an assistant pastor although he also helped served other parishes as well.  He became rector of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia in 1853 and was promoted to pastor at St. Patrick’s in 1856 while still serving at the seminary.  O’Hara became vicar general of the Diocese in 1860 while remaining at St. Patrick’s.  He was appointed the first Bishop of Scranton in 1868.  During his over 30 years as Bishop, O’Hara quadrupled the number of parishes from 47 to 78 and the number of priests from 25 to 130.  He built many schools, an orphanage, a hospital, and he helped establish the University of Scranton in 1888.  He died in 1899.

Michael J. Hoban was born in New Jersey in 1853 to Irish immigrant parents.  The family moved to Hawley, Pennsylvania, when Hoban was a child.  Educated in New York and Massachusetts, he dropped out of school in 1871 after his father died.  He helped his mother with the family business and in 1874 began his seminary training, first in Philadelphia and later in Rome.  Hoban was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Scranton 1880 and served in parishes in Towanda, Pittston, Troy, and Ashley.  He was appointed coadjutor bishop of Scranton in 1896—he was in charge of the Diocese due to Bishop O’Hara’s failing health.  He became Bishop in 1899 upon the death of O’Hara.

Hoban was faced with a crisis soon after becoming administrator of the Diocese.  A group of Polish-speaking Catholics in Scranton were dissatisfied with their German pastor and broke away from their parish.  A Polish priest agreed to lead them and this group eventually when into schism with the Roman Catholic Church to form the Polish National Catholic Church.  Hoban tried but was unable to prevent this.  He sought to meet the needs of the large numbers of immigrants in the Diocese by doubling the number of parishes and parish schools and by building hospitals, orphanages, homes for the elderly, and three colleges.  He arbitrated labor disputes involving mining companies and miners in the anthracite coal mines of the area and hosted a meeting between President Theodore Roosevelt and John Mitchell, the leader of the United Mine Workers.  He died in 1926.

Pioneer Bishops of Oregon

This blog will discuss bishops that served in Oregon up to 1900.  For more information about Oregon, see my blog of July 8, 2017.

Spanish and English explorers sailed along the Oregon Coast as early as 1543, but it would take over 200 years for Europeans to become interested in Oregon.  The English Captain James Cook came to Oregon in 1778 and purchased furs from the Native Americans living along the coast.  His return to England opened up Oregon for commercial exploitation.  The American Captain Robert Gray “discovered” the Columbia River in 1792 and the Lewis and Clark expedition came to Oregon during 1805-1806.  The first commercial post was established at Astoria by the American Fur Company in 1811.  Control of the Oregon Country would be disputed by the British and Americans for the next 37 years.

A few Americans settled in Oregon in the mid-1830s and a provisional government was established at Oregon City—Oregon’s first permanent non-Native American settlement—in 1843.  The Americans and the British eventually resolved their dispute over Oregon—in the Americans favor—and Oregon was organized as a Territory in 1848 and entered the Union as the 33rd State in 1859.

Canadian fur traders and other Catholics had settled in the Willamette Valley and in 1834 petitioned a Canadian bishop to send them a priest.  The bishop sent Fathers Francis Blanchet and Modeste Demers who arrived in Oregon in 1838.  The first Mass in Oregon was said at St. Paul, about 20 miles north of Salem, on January 6, 1839.  Other priests followed, including the Jesuit Father Peter De Smet, who brought the Faith to the Flathead and Nez Perce tribes.  Pope Gregory XVI created the Vicariate Apostolic of Oregon City in 1843 with Blanchet as the Vicar Apostolic.  Pope Pius IX created the Province of Oregon City in 1846, making Oregon City an archdiocese—the second in the United States.  The name would be changed to the Archdiocese of Portland in 1928.  Pope Leo XIII created the Diocese of Baker City in 1903 to serve eastern Oregon—its name was changed to Baker in 1952.

Francis N. Blanchet, the “Apostle of Oregon,” was born in Quebec in 1795 and was ordained a priest there in 1819.  He spent the next two decades working in Quebec and New Brunswick, where he learned to speak English.  He was sent to the Pacific Northwest in 1838, accompanied by another priest and some nuns, to serve the few Catholics (mostly French-Canadian) in the area (which included what is now the Northwestern United States, Alaska, and part of western Canada) and to evangelize the Native Americans.  Blanchet was appointed the first Vicar Apostolic of the Oregon Territory in 1843, although Oregon was so remote in those days, that it took almost a year for news of this appointment to reach Blanchet.  He left Oregon in November 1844 to travel to Montreal to be consecrated as bishop—a trip that took him by steamer to Hawaii, around Cape Horn, to England.  He then took another ship to Boston and a train to Montreal arriving in July 1845.  Blanchet than left for Europe to recruit priests and other religious and secure funding for the Church in Oregon.  He did not return to Oregon until August 1847 accompanied by 8 priests and 13 religious brothers and sisters.  In 1846, during Blanchet’s travels, Pope Pius IX appointed him Archbishop of Oregon City, Oregon (which is today a suburb of Portland).  The Archdiocese of Oregon City, now the Archdiocese of Portland, is the second oldest archdiocese in the United States.

During his years as a bishop, Blanchet devised a system of signs and notations to teach the Faith to the Native Americans.  He protested the U.S. Government’s policy of placing Catholic missions under Protestant control.  He also faced a financial crisis brought about by the end of the California gold rush.  He held the first Provincial Council in 1848 and attended councils in Baltimore and the First Vatican Council.  He established many churches, schools, and other Catholic institutions throughout Oregon, and established a diocesan newspaper in 1870.  He moved his residence to Portland in 1862 and retired in 1880.  Blanchet died in 1883. 

Charles J. Seghers was born in Belgium in 1839 and ordained a priest there in 1863. Later that year, he arrived in Victoria, British Columbia, and spent the next ten years serving the Church as pastor and missionary.  Seghers suffered from poor health throughout his life and almost died of tuberculosis in 1868.  He was appointed Bishop of what is now the Diocese of Victoria in 1873—he was at that time the youngest bishop in North America.  Soon after his appointment, he went to Alaska, which was then part of his Diocese, where he established and visited missions to the Native people.  Much to his dismay, he was appointed coadjutor archbishop of Oregon City in 1878 and became Archbishop upon Blanchet’s retirement in 1880.  

Archbishop Seghers traveled to parishes and missions throughout Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, despite his continued poor health.  He was noted as a skilled preacher and musician.  He established a Catholic school system and brought in members of the Benedictine Order to establish Mount Angel Abbey in Oregon.  He increased the number of churches and schools and encouraged his priests to make their opinions known.  He resigned as Archbishop in 1884 and returned to Vancouver Island so that he could go back to his beloved Alaska.  Seghers, later to be known as the Apostle of Alaska, made his fifth and last trip there in 1886, during which time he was shot and killed by a mentally deranged member of his party.

William H. Gross was born in Baltimore in 1837—his father was of German ancestry and his mother of Irish ancestry.  He enrolled in a seminary in Ellicott City, Maryland, at the age of 13, but returned to work in his father’s store in 1853 after the seminary decided he was not suited to become a priest.  He thought about becoming a sailor, but in 1857 joined the Redemptorists.  He was ordained a priest in 1863.  Gross ministered to wounded Union soldiers in Annapolis and to Confederate prisoners-of-war as well as freed African Americans.  He joined a Redemptorist mission band and served at missions in Maryland, New York, Florida, and Georgia before he became ill.  He regained his health and served in New York and in Boston.  He was appointed the fifth Bishop of Savannah in 1873 and became the youngest bishop in the United States.  Gross was named Archbishop of Oregon City, Oregon, in 1885.

Archbishop Gross was the first American-born bishop in the Far West.  As Archbishop, he established a religious order that has become the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon.  He also invited other religious orders to the Archdiocese to establish churches, schools, a maternity home, and a home for the aged.  He dedicated the third Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland and established a seminary and a Catholic newspaper.  He traveled throughout the Archdiocese by train, horseback, and on foot.  He died in 1898 in Baltimore after giving a retreat in Annapolis, Maryland.

Alexander Christie was born in Vermont in 1848 and moved with his family to Wisconsin and then to Minnesota.  After attending seminary in Montreal, Christie was ordained a priest for the Diocese of St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1877.  He served at parishes in Minnesota, most in Minneapolis, until 1898 when he was named Bishop of Vancouver Island, British Columbia.  The following year he was named Archbishop of Oregon City. 

Archbishop Christie was an advocate of Catholic education.  He helped establish the University of Portland (then called Columbia University) in 1901 and took on the Oregon government.  The Oregon legislature passed a law in 1922 that required all children to attend public school.  The archbishop and others fought this measure before and after it became law and the Supreme Court of the United States declared the law unconstitutional in 1925.  Christie also introduced a novel way of bringing the Church to the people by buying two chapel cars—railroad cars converted to rolling chapels.  The size of his archdiocese led him to ask the Vatican to create the Diocese of Baker City, which was done in 1903.  Christie was also known as an eloquent speaker.  He died in 1925.

Pioneer Bishops of Ohio

This blog will discuss bishops that served in Ohio up to 1900.  For more information about Ohio, see my blog of August 11, 2017.

The first Europeans to visit Ohio were led by the French explorer, Robert Cavelier, Sueur de La Salle, who claimed the land for France in 1671.  French Jesuit missionaries came to Ohio around 1750 and established a mission to the Hurons near modern day Sandusky in 1751, but this and other missions to the Native Americans were not successful.  Ohio became part of the British colonies in 1763 and part of the United States in 1783.  Ohio was included in the Northwest Territory in 1787 and it was only at this time that settlers from the East—many were Revolutionary War veterans—came to Ohio, establishing Marietta in 1787, Cincinnati in 1788, and Cleveland in 1796.  Ohio became the 17th State in 1803.  Catholics settled in Somerset and established the first permanent Catholic church there (St. Joseph’s) in 1818.  Other early Catholic settlements were in Knox County in central Ohio and in Stark and Columbiana Counties in northeastern Ohio.

Ohio became part of the Diocese of Bardstown, Kentucky, in 1808, but by 1820, Ohio had a population of almost 600,000, making it the fourth most populous of the 24 States.  Pope Pius VII established the Diocese of Cincinnati in 1821 as the ninth U.S. diocese.  Over the next twenty years, large numbers of immigrants, mostly German, came to Ohio, and in 1840, Ohio had 1.5 million people.  In 1847, Pope Pius IX created the Diocese of Cleveland for the Catholics in northern Ohio.  Three years later, Pius IX established the Province of Cincinnati (the Provinces of Cincinnati, New Orleans, and New York, were created on the same day, making them the fourth, fifth, and sixth provinces in the United States).

In the 1840s and 1850s, large numbers of German and Irish immigrants came to Ohio and by 1860, the population had grown to 2.3 million.  Pius IX created the Diocese of Columbus in 1868.  The latter half of the 19th Century saw large numbers of immigrants coming to Northern Ohio from Eastern Europe.  Pope Pius X established the Diocese of Toledo in 1910 and Pope Pius XII created the Dioceses of Youngstown in 1943 and Steubenville in 1944.

Edward D. Fenwick was born in Maryland in 1768 and ordained a Dominican priest in 1793.  He was from a prominent Maryland Catholic family—one cousin, Benedict, became the first Bishop of Boston, and another cousin, Enoch, became president of what is now Georgetown University.  After his ordination in Belgium, Fenwick remained in Europe teaching at Dominican colleges.  He returned to the United States in 1804.  Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore asked him and his fellow Dominicans to go west of the Appalachian Mountains and evangelize in the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase.  Fenwick and three other Dominican priests traveled throughout this vast territory before eventually purchasing a plantation near Springfield, Kentucky, in 1806.  This became St. Rose Priory and was the first Catholic educational institution west of the Allegheny Mountains.  This also became the home of the first U.S. Dominican province and Fenwick served at various times as the provincial superior.  A college was added to the Priory in 1812 and one of the early students was a young Jefferson Davis.

Life for these Dominicans was difficult.  They traveled alone across great distances on horseback.  Fenwick first traveled to Ohio in 1808 and found many German and Irish Catholics, who often spoke little English.  He built the first three Catholic churches in Ohio in 1818 in Somerset, Lancaster, and Cincinnati.  Fenwick was appointed the first Bishop of Cincinnati in 1822.  Fenwick’s new diocese consisted of Ohio, Michigan, and portions of other states.  There were about six thousand Catholics in Ohio at the time the Diocese was created in 1821.  The young diocese lacked resources and Fenwick traveled throughout Europe from 1823 to 1826 successfully recruiting priests and religious, and obtaining contributions.  After his return, he built a new cathedral, established a seminary (the third in the United States and now known as the Athenaeum of Ohio-Mount St. Mary Seminary), and started a diocesan newspaper (in part to defend the Faith against attacks—the newspaper is the oldest continuously published Catholic newspaper in the nation).  He also established what is now known as Xavier University in 1831.  He rode on horseback throughout the Diocese establishing missions and making converts.  He died in 1832 of cholera.

John Baptist Purcell was born in Ireland in 1800 and was sent to the United States as a teenager to get an education.  He entered Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Maryland in 1820, received additional education in Europe and was ordained a priest in Paris in 1826.  He returned to the United States and later became president of Mount St. Mary’s.  Purcell was named Bishop of Cincinnati in 1833 and became the first Archbishop of Cincinnati in 1850.  At the time of his appointment as Bishop, the Diocese included all of Ohio.

Archbishop Purcell served half a century as the leader of the Diocese and Archdiocese of Cincinnati—the second longest tenure of any U.S. bishop for a single diocese.  After Purcell became Bishop, Irish and Germans came to Ohio by the thousands.  He greatly increased the number of churches and other Catholic institutions in the Archdiocese, as well as the number of priests (from 14 to 480) and religious.  He built the first parish for Germans (in Cincinnati) east of the Allegheny Mountains and established a German newspaper.  He was a strong proponent of parish schools and many were built as a result.  He famously and successfully debated the noted Protestant preacher, Alexander Campbell, over the course of a week in 1837, converting several people (including some Protestant ministers) to Catholicism.  He defended the Church, and specifically his Cathedral, against attacks by the anti-Catholic Know-Nothing party in 1853 and strongly supported the Union during the Civil War.  Purcell also completed the current Cathedral of St. Peter in Chains. Purcell’s last years were difficult due to mismanagement of Archdiocesan funds by the Archbishop’s younger brother, who was also a priest.  Purcell died in 1883.  Willa Cather based the character of Father Ferrand in Death Comes for the Archbishop, after Archbishop Purcell.

William H. Elder was born in Baltimore in 1819 to a Maryland Catholic family.  He was related to the Spalding family which produced two 19th Century bishops and one foundress of a religious order.  Elder attended seminary at Mount St. Mary’s in Maryland and in Rome before being ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Baltimore in 1846.  He taught at Mount St. Mary’s until he was appointed Bishop of Natchez, Mississippi, in 1857. 

Bishop Elder was named coadjutor archbishop of Cincinnati in 1880 and became Archbishop of Cincinnati in 1883 upon the death of Archbishop Purcell.  Archbishop Elder was eventually able to resolve the financial crisis that he inherited from Archbishop Purcell and was able to reopen the diocesan seminary that had closed eight years earlier because of the crisis.  He also established 32 parishes.  Elder was a talented administrator and greatly improved the management and organization of the Archdiocese, in part by requiring annual reports from each parish and Catholic institution.  He was a good and holy priest, hearing confessions almost to the day he died in 1904 from influenza.  

Louis Amadeus Rappe was born in France in 1801.  He was one of ten children born to peasant parents and he labored on a farm until he was 19.  He eventually attended seminary and was ordained a priest in 1829.  In 1839, Rappe accepted an invitation from Bishop John Purcell to come to Cincinnati, which he did the following year.  He eventually became pastor of St. Francis de Sales parish in Toledo and in 1847, he was appointed the first Bishop of Cleveland.  Rappe’s new Diocese had 42 churches in northern Ohio served by 21 priests.

Bishop Rappe established many new institutions for his new Diocese, including churches, schools, hospitals, orphanages, and a diocesan seminary, and invited religious orders to work in the Diocese.  He also began construction of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Cleveland.  He was a strong believer in temperance.  He sought to fulfill the spiritual needs of immigrants, which led to tension in the Diocese.  The situation plus failing eyesight led Rappe to resign as Bishop in 1870, at which time the Diocese had 100,000 Catholics and 160 churches.  After his resignation, Bishop Rappe moved to St. Albans, Vermont, to do missionary work in Vermont and Canada.  He died there in 1877.  

Richard Gilmour was born in Scotland in 1824 to Presbyterian parents.  The family moved to Canada in 1829 and eventually to Pennsylvania.  Gilmour was educated in Philadelphia where he met a Catholic priest, which led to Gilmour’s conversion to Catholicism in 1842.  He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in 1852.  He spent the next 20 years serving as a pastor at parishes in southern Ohio before being appointed the second Bishop of Cleveland in 1872.

Bishop Gilmour formalized the governance of the Diocese and established a Diocesan newspaper.  He fought for the rights of Catholics by establishing an association to defend the Catholic Faith against bigotry, winning the religious rights of prisoners in Ohio, and gaining tax exempt status for Catholic churches and schools.  He directed that all parishes have schools, if possible, and he even wrote some textbooks for the schools.  He also established a diocesan school board.  He established over 70 churches, over 60 schools, and four hospitals.  He was also very active in the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884.  He died in 1891.

Ignatius F. Horstmann was born in Philadelphia in 1840.  After studying in Philadelphia and Rome, he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Philadelphia in 1865.  He taught philosophy, German, and Hebrew at the local seminary until he was appointed pastor of a Philadelphia parish in 1877.  Horstmann was appointed chancellor of the Archdiocese in 1885 and also served as president of the American Catholic Historical Society.  He was named the third Bishop of Cleveland in 1891.

Bishop Horstmann was the author of several articles defending the Catholic Faith.  He also supported missionary work and started a Diocesan missionary group.  He built schools, hospitals, and orphanages, and sought to improve relations between Catholics and non-Catholics.  He sought to meet the needs of immigrants in his Diocese, notably those from southern and eastern Europe, by establishing parishes for them.  Horstmann asked for and received an auxiliary bishop specifically to minister to Slavic immigrants.  Despite this, Horstmann faced opposition from some Polish immigrants.  One priest established an independent parish and Horstmann excommunicated the priest and the parishioners.  Horstmann died in 1908 of heart disease.

Sylvester H. Rosecrans was born in Homer, Ohio, in 1827, to Dutch Methodist parents.  His mother was descended from two members of the Hopkins family—one served as colonial governor of Rhode Island and the other served as commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy.  Rosecrans brother, William, served as a Union general during the Civil War.  Sylvester was attending Kenyon College in Ohio in 1845 when William informed him that he had become a Catholic.  This led to Sylvester’s conversion the same year and he studied in New York and Rome before being ordained a priest for the Diocese of Cincinnati in 1853.  Rosecrans served at parishes in Cincinnati and as a professor and eventually president at the seminary in Cincinnati.  Rosecrans was appointed auxiliary bishop of Cincinnati in 1861 and as the first Bishop of Columbus in 1868.

The new diocese had about 30 parishes and 40,000 Catholics.  As the bishop of a new diocese, Bishop Rosecrans established many new churches, schools, and other Catholic institutions, including a diocesan newspaper and a diocesan seminary.  Bishop Rosecrans died in 1878—one day after he consecrated the new St. Joseph Cathedral. 

John A. Watterson was born in Pennsylvania as one of 11 children.  His father’s father, born an Episcopalian, was raised by a Catholic family and became Catholic.  Watterson’s mother was of Irish ancestry.  The Watterson home often welcomed missionary priests.  Watterson attended St. Vincent’s College in Pennsylvania and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Maryland and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Columbus in 1868.  Watterson was a professor at Mount St. Mary’s until he became vice president in 1877.  He was named president in 1879 and appointed Bishop of Columbus in 1880.

Watterson established a diocesan seminary, Mount Carmel Hospital, and new parishes, especially for new immigrants from Europe.  He emphasized Catholic religious education and sought to increase the number of priests.  Watterson was the first Catholic bishop to speak at the Ohio State University.  He believed strongly in the virtue of temperance and prohibited saloon keepers from holding any office in any Catholic organization.  Unfortunately, Watterson’s building program put the Diocese deep into debt and consideration was given to suppressing the Diocese.  Bishop Watterson died in 1899.

Henry Moeller was born in 1849 in Cincinnati.  He parents were immigrants from Germany and his father worked as a building contractor.  Moeller was educated in Ohio and Rome and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in 1876.  He served as a parish pastor and seminary professor before becoming personal secretary to Archbishop Elder in 1880.  He served as chancellor of the Archdiocese from 1886 to 1900.  Moeller was name Bishop of Columbus in 1900.

In 1900, there were 60,000 Catholics in the Diocese of Columbus.  Bishop Moeller was in Columbus only three years, but he was able to pay off most of the Diocesan debt and make improvements in the governance of the diocese, for example by establishing parish boundaries for Franklin County, and by convening the fifth synod of the Diocese to set regulations pertaining to the needs of the clergy and people of the Diocese.  Moeller established three new parishes and four missions.  He had two brothers who became priests and one sister who became a nun.  Bishop Moeller was named coadjutor archbishop of Cincinnati in 1903 and became Archbishop the next year.  He died in 1925.

Pioneer Bishops of Oklahoma

This blog will discuss bishops that served in Oklahoma up to 1900.  For more information about Oklahoma, see my blogs of December 21, 2016, and September 21, 2017.

Spanish (De Soto and Coronado) and French (La Salle) explorers visited what is now Oklahoma, usually accompanied by missionaries, as early as 1540, but there were few Catholics among the native Americans and the few white pioneers until the U.S. Government opened Oklahoma for white settlement in 1889.  Fathers Michael and Lawrence Smyth, brothers from Fort Smith, Arkansas, started construction of the first Catholic church in Oklahoma—St. Patrick’s in Atoka in 1872.  The man most responsible for bringing Catholicism to Oklahoma was Father Isidore Robot, a French Benedictine monk.  Father Robot came to Atoka, accompanied by Brother Dominic Lambert in 1875 and completed St. Patrick’s church.  He was named Prefect Apostolic for the Indian Territory in 1877 and in 1880 he founded Sacred Heart Abbey and mission in 1875 in what was then Potawatomi Indian territory and what is now near Konawa, Oklahoma.  The Benedictines at the abbey founded over 40 parishes and missions in Oklahoma before the abbey was consolidated with St. Gregory’s Abbey in Shawnee in 1929.  The missionaries had some success with bringing the Faith to the Native Americans, especially the Osage, Potawatomi, and Choctaw tribes.

Father Robot died in 1887 and was succeeded as Prefect Apostolic by another Benedictine priest, Ignatius Jean, who resigned in 1890.  The following year Pope Leo XIII created the Vicar Apostolic of the Oklahoma and Indian Territory to serve the Territory’s 5,000 Catholics.  In 1905—two years before Oklahoma became a state—Pope Pius X created the Diocese of Oklahoma.  By 1910, there were over 30,000 Catholics in the new state—many Irish Catholics from Pennsylvania had come to Oklahoma after large oil reservoirs were discovered.  In 1930, the name of the diocese was changed to the Diocese of Oklahoma City and Tulsa.  Pope Paul VI created the Province of Oklahoma City in 1972 which raised Oklahoma City to the rank of an Archdiocese.  The Province consisted of the Archdiocese, the Diocese of Little Rock, and the newly created Diocese of Tulsa.

Theophile Meerschaert was born in Belgium in 1847.  He was the eighth of nine children of a working class family.  He attended other seminaries before graduating from the American College of Louvain (Belgium) having become interested in the American missions.  He was ordained in 1871 and arrived at Natchez, Mississippi, in 1872.  He served as a priest in Mississippi for the next two decades before his appointment as the Vicar Apostolic of the Oklahoma and Indian Territory in 1891.  

When Meerschaert was appointed Vicar Apostolic, his vicariate had 5,000 Catholics and 21 churches and a dozen schools served by three diocesan priests and two dozen Benedictine priests.  Finding enough priests to serve Oklahoma Catholics was difficult and Bishop Meerschaert made 11 trips to Europe to recruit priests for the Diocese.  Meerschaert became the first Bishop of Oklahoma in 1905 and by the time of his death in 1924, he had managed to increase the number of churches in the Diocese to almost 130.  Oklahoma passed a law in 1917 that made importation of alcoholic beverages illegal—it was already illegal to manufacture such beverages.  Bishop Meerschaert sued the State citing infringement of religion and the State Supreme Court agreed with the Diocese in 1918.  For thirty-two years as bishop, Meerschaert kept a detailed diary, which was edited and published seventy years after his death.

Basilicas in France—Pays de la Loire

Basilica of St. Nicholas, Nantes, Loire-Atlantique

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Leo XIII in 1882.

A chapel was built on this site in the 12th Century and the current Gothic Revival church was built in the mid-1800s.  It features a 65-foot-tall stained-glass window and an altar with 26 statues.  The church was severely damaged during the Second World War but has been restored.

All pictures are from Wikipedia.

Basilica of St. Donatien and St. Rogatien, Nantes, Loire-Atlantique

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Leo XIII in 1889.

The Basilica was built in the 18th Century on the site of four previous churches.  The Basilica is dedicated to two early Christian martyrs who were brothers.

The first two pictures are from local sources and the third is from Wikipedia.

Basilica of Our Lady of the Oak, Vion, Sarthe

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Leo XIII in 1894.

Since 1494, pilgrims have come to this site.  Originally a statue of Our Lady was placed in an oak tree.  Mary is said to have appeared to a woman at this site and miracles have been attributed to Our Blessed Mother’s intercession.  The current Gothic church was built between 1869 and 1875.

The first picture is from the basilica website and the other two are from Wikipedia.

Basilica of Our Lady of Avesnieres, Laval, Mayenne

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Leo XIII in 1898.

The Basilica is named for a neighborhood of Laval.  The Romanesque church was built in the 12th Century and contains a 14th Century Madonna, a 16th Century statue of St. Christopher, and triptychs dating to the 15th Century.

All pictures aare from Wikipedia.

Basilica of Our Lady of Miracles, Mayenne, Mayenne

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Leo XIII in 1900.

Portions of the basilica date to 1110 although renovations have been made frequently over the centuries.

All pictures are from Wikipedia.

Basilica of Our Lady of Hope, Pontmain, Mayenne

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Pius X in 1905.

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1, the Prussian army was advancing on Laval, France.  The war was not going well for the French.  On January 17, 1871, the Virgin Mary appeared to some children in the town of Pontmain, near Laval.  That very evening the Prussian Army stopped their advance.  One Prussian general noted his army was blocked by an invisible Madonna.  The war ended with a week.  Near the site of the apparition, the Basilica was built between 1873 and 1894 in a Gothic Revival style.

All pictures are from Wikipedia.

Basilica of St. Madeline, Angers, Maine-et-Loire

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Pius XI in 1922.

The Gothic church was built between 1873 and 1878.  The Basilica was vandalized in April 2023.

From a local source.

Basilica of Our Lady of the Thorn, Evron, Mayenne

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Pius XII in 1939.

The church was built between 1405 and 1527 using a Flamboyant Gothic style.  It was rebuilt in 1868.  It takes its name from a Madonna statue that was found around 1300 in a thorn bush.  It is noted for its gargoyles and for being a stop on one of the roads to St. James Compostela in Spain.  The church is said to have inspired various artists and writers including Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, and Paul Claudel.

All pictures are from Wikipedia.

Basilica of St. Benedict, Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire, Loiret

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Pius XII in 1949.

The Basilica is the abbey church for a Benedictine monastery that dates to around 630.  Forty monks live there today.  The Romanesque Basilica was built in the 11th Century.

All pictures are from Wikipedia.

Basilica of St. Louis de Montfort, Saint-Laurent-sur-Sevre, Vendee

Declared a minor basilica by Pope John XXIII in 1962.

The Basilica was built between 1888 and 1949.  It contains the tombs of St. Louis de Montfort and Blessed Marie Louise Trichet.

The first two pictures are from local sources and the last is from Wikipedia.

Pioneer Bishops of North Dakota

This blog will discuss bishops that served in North Dakota up to 1900.  For more information about North Dakota, see my blog of March 12, 2017.

French Canadian explorers, Pierre and Francois Verendrye, came to the area that is now North Dakota around 1740, accompanied by a Jesuit priest, Father Coquart.  However, the first Catholic missionary activity in the area did not take place until 1818 when the Bishop of Quebec, J. Octave Plessis, sent two priests—Joseph Provencher and Josef Severe Dumoulin—to Fort Douglas, now St. Boniface, Manitoba.  Later that year, Father Dumoulin established a mission at Pembina in what is now North Dakota.  He was recalled to Quebec when it was determined that Pembina was in the United States—a portion of eastern North Dakota did not become part of the United States until 1818.

Starting in 1831, Father George Belcourt ministered to the needs of the early Catholic settlers and became a missionary to the Native Americans.  He composed a grammar book and dictionary in the Algonquin language.  Father Pierre DeSmet, a Jesuit, ministered to the Mandan and Gros Ventre tribes from 1840 to 1870.  Father Jean Baptiste Marie Genin established a mission at Fort Totten in 1865.  The Sisters of Charity (Grey Nuns) of Montreal under Sr. Mary Clapin built a school there in 1874 for the Dakota tribe.  Various priests served as chaplains at Fort Totten, including Father Jerome Hunt, O.S.B., who wrote several publications in the Dakota language, such as a Bible history, prayer books, and hymnals.  In 1850, Pope Pius IX made the Dakotas east of the Missouri River part of the Diocese of St. Paul, Minnesota, and the Dakotas west of the Missouri River part of the vast Vicariate Apostolic of the Indian Territory East of the Rocky Mountains. 

The Dakota Territory (consisting of what is now South Dakota and North Dakota) was established in 1861, and in 1879, Pope Leo XIII named Abbot Martin Marty, OSB, of St. Meinrad's Abbey in Indiana to be Vicar Apostolic of the Territory.  Irish Catholics started coming to North Dakota to build railroads in the 1870s and 1880s and they were soon followed by other immigrant groups, especially Germans in western North Dakota.

North Dakota became a State in 1889 and in the same year, Pope Leo XIII created the Diocese of Jamestown to serve all of North Dakota.  The first bishop of Jamestown, John Shanley, moved his see to the much larger city of Fargo in 1897.  North Dakota’s population increased from 320,000 in 1900 to 577,000 in 1910.  To deal with this growth, Pope Pius X created the Diocese of Bismarck in 1909 to serve western North Dakota.

John Shanley was born in the State of New York in 1852 and moved with his family to Minnesota in 1857.  He was an altar server at the Cathedral of St. Paul before attending college at St. John’s in Minnesota.  After graduating in 1869, he was sent to Rome for further seminary training and traveled to Rome with John Ireland, the future first Archbishop of St. Paul.  Shanley was ordained a priest for the Diocese of St. Paul in 1874 and returned to Minnesota in 1882.  He served as pastor for the Cathedral and held various diocesan positions under Ireland, who had become Bishop of St. Paul.  Shanley also made sure that minorities and the poor were served by the Diocese.  He was named the first Bishop of Jamestown, South Dakota, in 1889, which then consisted of the entire State.  Shanley found it difficult to govern the Diocese from Jamestown, so he moved to Fargo in 1891, although the diocese did not become the Diocese of Fargo until 1897.  (Fargo was and is substantially larger than Jamestown.)

Bishop Shanley was an effective defender of the Faith in a state that was largely Protestant and anti-Catholic.  He served as Bishop at a time of great growth with the Catholic population of North Dakota increasing from 30,000 to 70,000, many foreign-born.  As a result, he built more than 150 churches, including the Cathedral of St. Mary in Fargo.  Construction on the Cathedral was delayed due to a fire that destroyed much of downtown Fargo.  Bishop Shanley donated substantially to reconstruction of the downtown area.  He also opened more than two dozen schools and three hospitals, run by religious orders.  He had special concern about the spiritual, material, and educational needs of those in rural areas and of Native Americans living on reservations.  He also strongly supported the temperance movement and social reforms and began a diocesan newspaper.  He died in his sleep in 1909.