Pioneer Bishops of Washington

This blog will discuss bishops that served in the State of Washington up to 1900.  For more information about Washington, see my blog October 13, 2018.

The first Europeans to set foot in Washington were a party of Spanish explorers led by Bruno Heceta who landed at Point Grenville in 1775.  They were accompanied by a Franciscan priest who erected a cross.  Other explorers followed and in 1792, Robert Gray, the first American to come to Washington, “discovered” the Columbia River.  He was followed a decade later by Lewis and Clark.  Fur traders traveled throughout the area in the early 19th Century before the first settlements were established at Tumwater (1845), Olympia (1850), and Steilacoom (1851).  The United States and Great Britain agreed in 1818 to jointly govern the Pacific Northwest and it was not until 1848 that the area came solely under the jurisdiction of the United States.  Congress created the Oregon Territory in 1848 and a separate Washington Territory in 1853.  Washington became the 42nd State in 1889.

Native Americans and French-Canadian settlers as early as 1831 requested priests to come to the area as missionaries.  Fathers Francois Blanchet and Modeste Demers responded to this request and came to Washington in October 1838—traveling mostly down the Columbia River—and suffered many hardships along the way including the death of several members of their party.  Reaching what is now southwestern Washington, they established St. Francis Xavier Mission in 1839 for the Cowlitz tribe near what is now Toledo, Washington.  Blanchet devised a teaching tool made from sticks to explain Christianity to the Native Americans.  Eventually other Native American missions were established, including some by the Jesuits and Oblate Fathers.  Many other religious orders served the territory, including the Benedictines, the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, and Mother Joseph and her Sisters of Charity of Providence.

Pope Gregory XVI created the Vicariate Apostolic of Oregon City, Oregon, in 1843 with Blanchet as the Vicar Apostolic.  Pope Pius IX created the Province of Oregon City in 1846, with Blanchet as Archbishop.  The new Province included the new Diocese of Walla Walla, Washington, and Blanchet’s brother, Augustine, was named Walla Walla’s first—and only—Bishop.  Walla Walla was a small settlement built around a fort and in 1850 the Diocese of Walla Walla was suppressed in favor of a new Diocese of Nesqually, based in Vancouver, Washington.  (Nesqually is the name of the local Native American tribe.)  The Diocese moved to Seattle in 1907 and eastern Washington became the Diocese of Spokane in 1913.  In 1951, Pope Pius XII made Washington the Province of Seattle, which included the Archdiocese of Seattle, the Diocese of Spokane, and the newly created Diocese of Yakima.

Augustine M. Blanchet was born in Quebec in 1797.  He was the younger brother of Francois Blanchet, who later became the first Archbishop of what is now the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon.  Their parents were farmers.  Augustine was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Quebec in 1821 and served as a priest in Nova Scotia and Montreal.  He was appointed the first Bishop of Walla Walla, Washington, in 1846 and shortly thereafter became an American citizen.  He arrived in Walla Walla in September 1847 shortly before two Protestant missionaries and 11 other people were killed by the Cayuse tribe near Walla Walla.  This forced Blanchet to relocate to The Dalles in Oregon.  In 1850, the Vatican created the Diocese of Nesqually and Blanchet became its first bishop and moved to Vancouver, Washington.  (The Diocese of Walla Walla was suppressed in 1853.)  

Blanchet took up residence in Vancouver and built a brick and stone St. James Cathedral to replace the converted store that had previously served as cathedral.  Blanchet worked to meet the spiritual needs of the French-Canadians who had lived in the area for many years, as well as the Native Americans, and the newly arrived Americans from the East.  He invited the Sisters of Providence from Montreal to assist him in the Diocese and they responded by building schools and hospitals.  Bishop Blanchet retired in 1879 and died in 1887 in Vancouver.  Blanchet became known as the Apostle of Washington and in 1955 his body was found to be incorrupt. 

Aegidius Junger was born in Germany in 1833 and attended seminary in Belgium.  He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Nesqually, Washington in 1862 and became rector of St. James Cathedral in Vancouver the same year.  He was named Bishop of Nesqually in 1879.

The population of the State grew by over 500 percent during Junger’s service as Bishop as immigrants took the newly completed transcontinental railroad to Washington.  Junger responded with building 60 new churches, including a new Cathedral in Vancouver.  He brought in several religious orders to administer parishes and teach in schools.  It was during his time as Bishop that the Jesuits established Gonzaga University in Spokane and Seattle University in Seattle.  Bishop Junger died in 1895.  

Edward J. O’Dea was born in Boston in 1856 and came with his Irish family to Portland, Oregon, in 1866.  He was educated in California, Oregon, and Quebec, before being ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, in 1882.  He was the first resident of Oregon to be ordained to the priesthood.  He served in parishes in Portland and as secretary to the archbishop.  O’Dea was named Bishop of Nesqually in 1896.

Edward O’Dea moved the Diocesan see to Seattle in 1907 becoming the first Bishop of Seattle.  O’Dea saw the Catholic population of his Diocese more than double during his episcopacy and he greatly increased the number of churches, schools, and other Catholic institutions, to keep up with this growth.  This growth also led to Eastern Washington becoming the Diocese of Spokane in 1913.  O’Dea established the State’s first Catholic seminary—St. Edward’s Seminary—and invited Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini (canonized in 1946) and her Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to work with Italian immigrants in Seattle.  He paid off the debt on the former Cathedral in Vancouver and then undertook the construction of the new Cathedral in Seattle.  He also helped defeat a Ku Klux Klan initiative to prohibit private and parochial schools in Washington.  O’Dea died in 1932.