Pioneer Bishops of Illinois

This blog will discuss bishops that served in Illinois up to 1900.  For more information about Illinois, see my blog of July 1, 2017.

The first Europeans to come to Illinois were Frenchmen led by the explorer Louis Joliet and the Jesuit priest, Jacques Marquette.  In 1673, they came down the Mississippi River past present-day Illinois and returned to Canada by way of the Illinois River and the Great Lakes.  French missionaries established missions among the Native Americans throughout the rest of the 17th Century.  The French eventually established forts and settlements along the Mississippi River, including at Cahokia in 1699—Holy Family Church was established the same year—and Kaskaskia in 1703—Immaculate Conception Church was established as a mission in 1675.  Illinois was included as part of the Northwest Territories in 1787 and eventually attracted settlers from Eastern states.  The Illinois Territory was established in 1809 and Illinois became the 21st State in 1818.

At the time of Statehood, there were only a few hundred Catholics, most of French or Irish ancestry and living near St. Louis.  Chicago had only about 150 Catholics out of a total population of 350 when it was incorporated in 1833.  Irish immigrants came to Illinois, especially Chicago, in the next two decades to build railroads and the Illinois and Michigan Canal.  Catholics in Illinois were organized into their own diocese in 1843 when Pope Gregory XVI established the Diocese of Chicago.  By 1850, Illinois’ population had increased to 851,000 and three years later, Pope Pius IX established the Diocese of Quincy (which became the Diocese of Alton in 1857 and the Diocese of Springfield in 1923) to serve Catholics in southern Illinois.

Immigrants from Europe, especially from Ireland and Germany, continued to come to Illinois during the last half of the 19th Century.  A portion of the Chicago diocese became the Diocese of Peoria in 1877 and the southern part of the Diocese of Alton became the Diocese of Belleville in 1887.  Meanwhile, Pope Leo XIII created the Province of Chicago in 1880 raising the Diocese of Chicago to the status of an archdiocese.  In 1908, with a statewide Catholic population of about one and a half million, Pope Pius X separated a portion of the Archdiocese of Chicago to create the Diocese of Rockford.  The Diocese of Joliet was separated from the Archdiocese in 1948.

William Quarter was born in Ireland in 1806 and was about to enter the seminary when he met a priest serving in the United States.  Moved by the priest’s accounts of the poor condition of the Church in the States, Quarter sailed initially to Canada in 1822.  He was not admitted to seminary in Canada due to his age, but was able to enroll at Mount St. Mary’s in Maryland.  He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of New York in 1829.  He served at parishes in Manhattan until 1843 when he was appointed the first Bishop of Chicago.

Bishop Quarter found fewer than 20 priests in his new Diocese when he became Bishop, but was able to increase that number to almost 50 four years later.  He built 30 churches and completed and paid off the debt of St. Mary’s in Chicago—his cathedral and the only Catholic church in Chicago at the time of his arrival.  He established a college (now the University of St. Mary of the Lake) in 1844 to train young men and brought in the Sisters of Mercy from Pittsburgh to establish St. Xavier’s Academy for young women in 1846.  He convened a diocesan synod and provided support to Chicago’s Irish immigrants.  He also convened what may have been the first theological conference in the United States in 1847.  Quarter convinced the Illinois legislature to grant the Bishop of Chicago with power to “hold real and other property in trust for religious purposes.”  Bishop Quarter died in 1848.

James O. Van de Velde was born in 1795 in what is now Belgium.  He entered the seminary in Belgium in 1815 after teaching French and Flemish for two years.  He was recruited by Father Charles Nerinckx in 1817 to come to Kentucky, but Van de Velde became ill during the voyage and stayed in Baltimore.  He attended seminary at what is now Georgetown University and entered the Jesuit order.  He was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1827.  Van de Velde developed two major skills.  He was Georgetown’s librarian from 1818 to 1831 and grew the book collection from 200 to 20,000.  He also was fluent in English, Flemish, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Latin.  After his ordination he was assigned as chaplain of Georgetown Visitation school and as pastor of two churches in Montgomery County, Maryland.  He was sent in 1831 to what is now St. Louis University in Missouri, first as a professor, and after 1840, as president.  He was named Jesuit vice-provincial in 1843 and Western Provincial in 1846.  He was appointed the second Bishop of Chicago in 1848.

The new bishop found a Diocese—consisting of the State of Illinois—that had 56 churches.  Van de Velde traveled throughout the state, using all means of transportation, to visit Catholics, some of whom had not seen a priest in years—this despite the fact that he did not enjoy good health.  He established 70 new churches, a hospital (which eventually became Rush Medical Center), orphanages, and 10 schools.  He angered some Irish because of his views on temperance and he disputed Bishop Quarters’ will with officials at St. Mary’s college.  Bishop Van de Velde was granted permission by the Vatican in 1853 to become Bishop of Natchez, Mississippi, in an attempt to regain his health.  Unfortunately, Van de Velde broke his leg three months after his arrival in Natchez.  Shortly thereafter, he contracted yellow fever and he died in 1855.

Anthony O’Regan was born in Ireland in 1809 and ordained a priest there in 1834.  He later became president of a university in Ireland and he came to St. Louis in 1849 to be a seminary rector.  He was appointed the third Bishop of Chicago in 1854.  Bishop O’Regan never sought to be bishop and thought himself unworthy—an opinion shared by many of his priests, especially those who were not Irish.  He did bring the Jesuits and Redemptorists to the Diocese and established several parishes and Calvary Cemetery.  Disputes with a French-Canadian priest and with the faculty at St. Mary’s college (which resulted in its closure), led O’Regan, after being Bishop for only two and a half years, to travel to Rome to ask permission to resign.  The Vatican granted permission in 1858 and O’Regan moved to London, never returning to the United States.  He died in 1866.  

James Duggan was born in Ireland in 1825.  Duggan came to the United States in 1842 and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of St. Louis in 1847.  He was appointed to succeed O’Regan in Chicago in 1859, thus becoming the fourth Bishop of Chicago in 15 years.  Bishop Duggan brought needed stability to the Diocese.  He brought several religious orders into the Diocese to help with the educational and charitable needs of the people.  He also established the parochial school system for the Diocese.  Unfortunately, while attending the Second Plenary Council in Baltimore in 1866, he showed signs of mental illness.  He sought a cure in New Mexico, but it was to no avail and in 1869, he was committed to an asylum where he remained for the rest of his life.  He officially remained Bishop until 1880 and he died in 1899.

Bishops were usually appointed for life in those days, but since Duggan was in an asylum, Thomas Foley was named apostolic administrator and coadjutor bishop of Chicago in 1869.  Bishop Foley was born in Baltimore in 1822 and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Baltimore in 1846.  He had barely arrived in Chicago when the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 devastated the city and destroyed several Catholic churches and many other Catholic buildings.  Bishop Foley was able to rebuild these buildings and build many more—he oversaw the construction of more than two dozen new churches in the Diocese.  Like Bishop Duggan, Foley brought in religious orders like the Franciscans to administer parishes, schools, and other institutions.  Bishop Foley was expected to become the fifth Bishop of Chicago but died in 1879 before he could receive that honor.  (Duggan was still the official Bishop of Chicago until 1880.)

Patrick A. Feehan was born in Ireland in 1829.  His father, a successful farmer, insured that Feehan received a good education.  Feehan was a student and a teacher at Maynooth College in Ireland when he met Archbishop Peter Kenrick of St. Louis.  Kenrick invited Feehan to come to St. Louis and teach in the seminary there.  Feehan came to the United States in 1852—his family had emigrated there two years before.  He was ordained a priest later that year.  Feehan served as pastor of several St. Louis churches and taught in the seminary, eventually becoming president.  He was one of the founders of the St. Vincent de Paul Society in the United States.  After the Battle of Shiloh in 1862, boatloads of wounded were brought to the docks in St. Louis and Feehan attended to the spiritual needs of the wounded and dying.

Feehan was appointed Bishop of Nashville in 1865 and was named the first Archbishop of Chicago in 1880.  Archbishop Feehan saw the Catholic population of the Archdiocese increase from 230,000 when he became archbishop to 800,000 at the time of his death.  Most of this growth came from immigrants from Poland, France, Italy, and Eastern Europe. To try to keep pace with this growth, Feehan increased the number of parishes from 194 to 298, more than half of which served a particular ethnic group.  New facilities were also necessary as a result of the 1871 Chicago Fire.  Feehan was a strong advocate of Catholic education and chaired the schools committee at the Third Plenary Council (a meeting of all U.S. bishops) in 1884.  He also participated in religious activities associated with Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and was noted for his preaching abilities.  He convened the first Archdiocesan synod in 1887 and established an archdiocesan newspaper in 1892.  Feehan also invited the Vincentians to establish DePaul University.  He did face some conflict.  Feehan and Polish Catholics at one parish clashed over the selection of a pastor resulting in a few thousand Poles leaving the Church and one priest being excommunicated.  Another priest was excommunicated when he refused to accept Feehan’s choice for an auxiliary bishop.  Feehan, along with other religious leaders, successfully fought to repeal a state law that gave local school boards some control over parochial schools.  He died in 1902 from a stroke.

Henry D. Juncker was born in France in 1809.  He attended seminary in France before coming to Cincinnati.  He completed his studies and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Cincinnati in 1834.  He served at parishes in Columbus, Cincinnati, Canton, and Dayton until he was named the first Bishop of Alton in 1857.  (The Diocese was established at Quincy in 1853 and Joseph Melcher was appointed Bishop, but Melcher refused the appointment.  The see moved to Alton in 1857 and to Springfield in 1923.  Melcher became the first Bishop of Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1868.) 

Bishop Juncker traveled to Europe and brought back seven priests and 12 seminarians to serve in his new Diocese—the number of priests increased from 28 to more than 80 while he served as Bishop.  He built new parishes, schools, hospitals, and other Catholic institutions to serve the large increase in the number of Catholics in the Diocese—numbering 85,000 at the time of his death.  He also invited the Recollect Franciscans from Germany who served at several parishes and established a monastery, seminary, and college.  Religious orders of women were invited to serve as teachers and nurses.  After the Civil War began in 1861, Juncker established a medical camp in Cairo to care for wounded soldiers.  Bishop Juncker died in 1868.

Peter J. Baltes was born in Bavaria in 1827 and came with his family to Upstate New York in 1833.  He father was a carpenter and tinsmith.  He attended seminary in Chicago and Montreal before being ordained a priest for the Diocese of Chicago in 1853.  He was assigned to a parish in southern Illinois which soon became part of the new Diocese of Quincy.  He then served in Belleville until 1866 when he was named vicar general for the Diocese, which now was called Alton.  He was named Bishop of Alton in 1870.

Bishop Baltes was the first Bishop consecrated in Illinois.  Baltes issued pastoral instructions that mandated parishes to build schools, to avoid large debt, and to build with bricks to prevent fires.  He even gave instructions on the use of church bells.  He also persuaded the State of Illinois to allow Catholic institutions to incorporate and he forbad Catholics from reading newspapers or journals that were critical of the Church (although he rescinded this a few years later).  The Diocese continued to grow under Bishop Baltes and he responded to this growth with the construction of more churches, schools, and other institutions.  He brought in women religious to staff schools and hospitals.  At the time of his death in 1886, the Diocese had 177 priests and 420 nuns serving 220 churches and missions, 13 hospitals, and other institutions.  He died from liver disease after suffering for two years.

James Ryan was born in Ireland in 1848 and moved at age 7 with his family to Kentucky.  After attending seminary in Kentucky, he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Louisville in 1871.  Ryan transferred to the new Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, in 1877.  He served a parishes in Illinois until 1888 when he was named Bishop of Alton.

Bishop Ryan presided over a smaller Diocese of Alton after the Diocese of Belleville was created in 1887.  Nevertheless, the need for additional churches and schools continued to be a major concern of the bishop—he built 40 churches and 7 schools.  He also built new hospitals and an orphanage.  He convened the Diocese’s first synod in 1889 to bring the Diocese into compliance with the decrees of the three national Plenary Councils of Baltimore.  He also sought to better serve the large number of immigrants by giving them priests who spoke their language.  The Diocese had 87,000 Catholics at the time of his death in 1923.  

John L. Spalding was born in Kentucky in 1840 and attended seminaries in Maryland, Ohio, and Belgium before being ordained a priest for the Diocese of Louisville in 1863.  He was related to both Martin Spalding, who served as Bishop of Louisville and later as Archbishop of Baltimore, and Catherine Spalding, the founder of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.  As a young priest, he served at the Cathedral of the Assumption in Louisville and served as a theologian at the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1866.  In 1872, he went to New York to write a biography of his recently deceased uncle, Martin Spalding, and served as an assistant pastor of a church there.

Spalding was only 36 when he became the first Bishop of Peoria in 1876.  As bishop for more than 30 years, he saw an increase in the number of parishes from 40 to 200 and the number of schools from 12 to 70.  He was a noted author and poet and an experienced horseman.  He was one of the U.S. bishops most responsible for the founding of the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.  He was offered, but declined, the position of the first rector of the University.  He also encouraged the founding of Trinity College in Washington to educate Catholic women.  He was one of several U.S. bishops who favored an “Americanist” view of the Church—separation of Church and State was good for the Church—a view not held by many Church leaders in Europe.  He was one of the primary authors of the Baltimore Catechism, which was first published in 1885.  Spalding was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt to mediate a 1902 miners’ strike.  He was successful in ending the strike which increased the miners’ pay and decreased their hours of work.  Spalding became paralyzed from a stroke in 1905 and resigned as bishop in 1908 and was given the personal title of Archbishop.  He died in 1916. 

John Janssen was born in Germany in 1835 and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Alton in 1858.  He initially served at a German-speaking parish in Springfield before becoming the Bishop’s secretary and Diocesan chancellor in 1863.  He became vicar general for the Diocese in 1870 while also serving a parish in Quincy for a time.  The Diocese of Belleville was created in 1888 and Janssen was named its first Bishop the following year.  Midway through Janssen’s time as Bishop, the Diocese contained 104 churches, 94 priests, 64 schools, and 50,000 Catholics.  Janssen invited the Poor Handmaids of Christ to establish a hospital in East St. Louis that was open to all regardless of race or religion.  Bishop Janssen died in 1913.

Pioneer Bishops of Idaho

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

The first non-Native Americans to come to Idaho were French Canadian fur traders, who came throughout the last half of the 18th Century and first half of the 19th Century, establishing outposts at Kalispell, Fort Hall, and Boise.  The Lewis and Clark expedition came to Idaho during 1805-1806 giving the United States a claim to the region.  But control of the Pacific Northwest would be disputed by the British and Americans until 1848.  In that year, a treaty gave the region to the United States and Idaho became part of the newly formed Oregon Territory.  Gold was discovered near Pierce in 1860 and thousands of miners came from California and the East seeking their fortune.  Mining of other minerals soon became a major industry.  The Idaho Territory was formed in 1863, and by 1870, Idaho had about 11,000 people.  It had 82,000 people when it became the 43rd State in 1890.

Native Americans in Idaho first became aware of the Catholic Faith from the French Canadians who came there over 200 years ago.  Sometime prior to 1820, a group of Catholic Iroquois, led by Ignace La Mousse, settled among the Flathead tribe, and introduced the Faith to them.  Members of the Flathead and Nez Perce tribes journeyed to St. Louis four times in the 1830s seeking the services of a priest.  The Jesuit Father Peter De Smet arrived in Idaho in 1840 and celebrated the first Mass near Henry Lake.  Father De Smet and other Jesuits ministered to the Flatheads, Nez Perce, and Pend d”Oreille tribes and established what is now known as the Cataldo Mission (dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus) in 1842—the current chapel was built in 1853 and is the oldest building in Idaho.

Prior to 1860, most Catholics in Idaho were Native American.  This changed with the discovery of gold in 1860—many of the miners were Irish Catholic.  Pope Pius IX created the Vicariate Apostolic of Idaho in 1868 at which time there were about 1,500 Catholics there.  (The Vicariate was originally of Idaho and Montana.  Montana was made a separate vicariate in 1883.)  Many of the Irish Catholics left Idaho after the gold rush ended in the early 1870s and many of the Native Americans were lost to the Faith because the U.S. Government placed them on reservations under the spiritual guidance of Protestant missionaries.  Pope Leo XIII established the Diocese of Boise in 1893—at which time there were about 7,000 Catholics out of a total population of over 100,000.  Today, it is estimated that half of Idaho’s Catholics are of Hispanic origin.

Louis A. Lootens was born in what is now Belgium in 1827.  He was ordained a priest in Paris in 1851 and came to Victoria, British Columbia, the following year.  He spent nine years there before becoming a priest for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.  He was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Idaho (a missionary diocese) in 1868.  Lootens was given charge of a territory that included all of today’s State of Idaho as well as portions of Montana and Wyoming.  This vast territory had about 1,500 Catholics served by seven priests.  He used St. Joseph’s Church in Idaho City—the first non-mission church of any denomination in Idaho—as his cathedral, and lived in two attached rooms.  He built the first church in Boise in 1870 but it burned down shortly after completion.  Bishop Lootens also attended the First Vatican Council in 1870.  He had a difficult time in Idaho—many people left the area after the end of the gold rush in 1870 and he faced health problems caused by primitive living conditions and the need to travel by foot or horseback over the vast distances of his vicariate apostolic.  He resigned as vicar apostolic in 1876 and spent his remaining years in Canada, ministering to the native peoples and writing books.  He died in 1898.

Alphonse J. Glorieux was born in Belgium in 1844 and entered the seminary intending to become a missionary in the United States.  He was ordained a priest in Belgium in 1867 and soon left for Portland, Oregon.  He spent the next four years serving at churches in Oregon and in 1871 was appointed first president of a boy’s school in Portland.  After a nine-year vacancy, Glorieux was named the second Vicar Apostolic of Idaho in 1885 and became the first Bishop of Boise in 1893.  

The new Diocese consisted of what is now the State of Idaho and had 7,000 Catholics, 10 priests, and 27 churches.  Glorieux selected St. John the Evangelist church in Boise to be his cathedral and replaced it with a new structure.  During his 32 years as vicar apostolic and bishop, Bishop Glorieux built 93 new churches and missions, several schools, five hospitals, an orphanage, and a home for the aged.  He also ordained almost 50 priests.  He died in 1917.

Pioneer Bishops of Hawaii

This blog will discuss bishops that served in Hawaii up to 1900.  For more information about Hawaii, see my blog of May 4, 2018.

The first known European to come to Hawaii was the English explorer, James Cook, in 1778—he named Hawaii the Sandwich Islands.  Protestant missionaries from New England came starting in 1820 and were successful in converting many Hawaiians to Christianity.  Hawaii was led by kings until a republic was formed in 1894.  Hawaii was annexed by the United States in 1898 and became a territory in 1900.  Hawaii became the 50th State in 1959.

Pope Leo XII created the Prefecture Apostolic of the Sandwich Islands in 1825.  [A prefecture apostolic is a missionary jurisdiction.]  Two years later, Father Alexis Bachelot (1796-1837), accompanied by two other members of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, arrived as the first Prefect Apostolic.  Bachelot was born in France and ordained in 1820.  He died of an illness while at sea. 

The priests made converts among the Hawaiians, which upset the Protestant missionaries.  Catholic converts were persecuted, and the priests eventually had to leave Hawaii.  Bachelot returned in 1837 but was again forced to leave as Catholicism was outlawed in Hawaii in that year.  Two years later, a French warship arrived in Honolulu, and Captain Cyril Laplace demanded that King Kamehameha III allow freedom of religion or face the threat of war.  The King relented and soon more priests from the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary arrived in Hawaii.

While Hawaii was a Prefecture Apostolic, it was under the jurisdiction of Bishop Stephen Rouchouze (1798-1843), also a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.  Rouchouze was born in France and ordained Vicar Apostolic of Eastern Oceania in 1833.  He moved to Honolulu in 1840 and later that year baptized almost 200 native Hawaiians and ordained Bernabe Castan to the priesthood, the first ordination in Hawaii.  He left for Europe in 1841 to gather supplies and recruit missionaries, but died when his ship sank on the return trip in 1843.   

In 1846, Father Louis Maigret, also from the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts, became the first Vicar Apostolic of the Sandwich Islands—the name was later changed to Hawaii.  [A vicariate apostolic is a missionary diocese.]  The Diocese of Honolulu was created in 1941.  Hawaii had more than 20 parishes in 1900 and by 1941 that number had more than doubled. 

Louis D. Maigret was born in France in 1804 and was ordained a priest for the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in 1828.  The Congregation sent him to the Kingdom of Hawaii to minister to the Catholic community there.  He was sent to Micronesia in 1837 but left after seven unsuccessful months.  He was then appointed Apostolic Prefect of the Sandwich Islands and in 1846, Maigret was appointed the first Vicar Apostolic of the Sandwich Islands.  Bishop Maigret built the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, established schools, and invited the Sacred Hearts Sisters to the Islands.  Maigret also printed missals and hymnals in Hawaiian.  He ordained Damien De Veuster (now a canonized saint) and sent him to Molokai to minister to the victims of Hansen’s disease (leprosy)—a ministry the Father Damien would continue until his death.  Maigret also attended the First Vatican Council in 1869.  Bishop Maigret died in 1882.

B. Herman Koeckemann was born in Germany in 1828 and became a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in 1851.  The Congregation sent him to Hawaii in 1854 to serve as a missionary and he was ordained a priest in 1862.  Koeckemann was named coadjutor vicar apostolic of the Sandwich Islands in 1881 and became Vicar Apostolic in 1882 upon the death of Bishop Maigret.

Many Portuguese immigrants, mostly Catholic, came to Hawaii during Koeckemann’s time as bishop, to work in the sugar plantations.  Bishop Koeckemann built many schools to serve the new immigrants as well as other Catholics and brought in religious orders such as the Brothers of the Society of Mary to staff the schools.  Koeckemann also invited Mother Marianne Cope (now a canonized saint) and the Franciscan Sisters of Syracuse to work with Hansen’s disease patients.  Bishop Koeckemann died in 1892 after suddenly becoming paralyzed.

Gulstan Ropert was born in France in 1839 and joined the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary at age 20.  He was ordained a priest for the Congregation in 1866 and was sent to Hawaii in 1868.  He served at churches on the Island of Hawaii until 1892 when he was appointed Vicar Apostolic of the Hawaiian Islands.

Three great events happened during the time that Bishop Ropert served as Vicar Apostolic:  the Kingdom was overthrown, Hawaii became part of the United States, and the Spanish American War was waged.  His patient temperament was well suited for the times.  These events brought Catholics to Hawaii from the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam—many to work at the sugar plantations.  Ropert established new schools to educate the immigrants’ children.  Ropert established three organizations for young men to offset the Vatican’s condemnation of other organizations, such as the Odd Fellows.  Bishop Ropert died from stomach cancer in 1903.

Basilicas in Ecuador

Basilica of Our Lady of Mercy, Quito, Pichincha

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Benedict XV in 1920—the first in Ecuador.

The Basilica was built between 1701 and 1736 and is the first church and headquarters for the Mercedarian Order in Ecuador.  The church has five domes and a square tower.

All pictures are from Wikipedia.

Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of the Presentation, El Quinche, Pichincha

Declared a minor basilica by Pope John XXIII in 1959.

In 1586, the indigenous people of the region asked Diego de Robles, a Quito-trained artist, to make a statue of Our Blessed Mother.  He made the statue out of cedar and other woods.  Soon after he made the statue, seemingly miraculous events started taking place in association with Our Lady of El Quinche and a church was built.  The current Basilica was built between 1905 and 1928. 

The first picture is from Flickr, the second from a local source, and the last two are from Wikipedia.

Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of the Elevation, Ambato, Tungurahua

Declared a minor basilica by Pope John XXIII in 1961.

The Basilica is the Cathedral for the Diocese of Ambato.  It was built in 1954 to replace a church destroyed by an earthquake.

Pictures are from a local source, Vymaps, and Wikipedia.

Basilica of Our Lady of Mercy, Guayaquil, Guayas

Declared a minor basilica by Pope John XXIII in 1962.

The Order of Mercy was one of the first religious orders to come to Guayaquil and they built a church at this location in 1787.  The current Gothic Basilica was built in the 1890s.

The first picture is from Flickr, the second from Pinterest, and the last two are from Wikipedia.

Basilica of Our Lady of Mercy, Ibarra, Imbabura

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Paul VI in 1964.

The church was built as part of a Mercedarian monastery.  Construction began in 1868 shortly after the city had been destroyed by an earthquake and continued until 1945.  The façade is Gothic and Romanesque and the interior has Baroque elements.  There are 16 chapels.

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

Basilica of St. Francis, Quito, Pichincha

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Paul VI in 1965.

The Basilica and attached buildings were built between 1535 and 1650.  The entire complex includes 13 cloisters and covers 10 acres of building space alone.  It is the oldest and most significant religious site in Ecuador and is managed by the Franciscans.  The complex was built using a combination of styles including Mannerist, Renaissance, Baroque, and Mudejar.  There are more than 3,500 works of art in the complex, many completed by the Colonial Quito School of Art, which was founded at the complex.

All pictures are from Wikipedia.

Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Gualaceo, Azuay

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Paul VI in 1966.

Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of El Cisne, El Cisne, Loja

Declared a minor basilica by Pope John Paul II in 1980.

Our Lady was said to have appeared to a shepherdess in 1594.  An image was soon made, and pilgrims began coming—today about five million a year.  The current Gothic church was built between 1930 and 1934 but has been enlarged four times since.

The first picture is from a local source and the second is from Wikipedia.

Cathedral Basilica of St. Hyacinth, Yaguachi, Guayas

Declared a minor basilica by Pope John Paul II in 1980.

A church has been on this site since 1579, but the current church was built in 1956.  The Basilica became a cathedral in 2009 with the creation of the Diocese of San Jacinto de Yaguachi.

The first picture is from a local source and the second is from Wikipedia.

Basilica of the Holy Virgin of Montserrat, Montecristi, Manabi

Declared a minor basilica by Pope John Paul II in 1988.

The Baroque and Gothic Basilica was built between 1959 and 1962.  The image of the Virgin of Montserrat was given by the 16th Century King of Spain, Charles V, to the city of Lima, Peru.  Somehow it made its way to Ecuador.

Both pictures are from local sources.

Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Patron of Ecuador, Quito, Pichincha

Declared a minor basilica by Pope John Paul II in 1991. 

The Basilica, also known as the Basilica of the National Vow, is the largest neo-Gothic basilica in the Americas.  It was constructed between 1892 and 1909 as a reminder that Ecuador is consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

 

All pictures are from Wikipedia.

Basilica of the Holy Trinity, Cuenca, Azuay

Declared a minor basilica by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.

Picture is from Flickr.

Pioneer Bishops of Georgia

This blog will discuss bishops that served in Alabama up to 1900.  For more information about Georgia, see my blog of January 10, 2017.

Spanish explorers came to Georgia in the early 16th Century.  The explorers were followed by Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries who established 18 missions beginning in 1595 to the Native Americans living along the Georgia coast.  Five Franciscans, now known as the Martyrs of Georgia and declared Servants of God (the first step toward canonization), were killed by Native Americans in 1597 for condemning the practice of polygamy.  The Spanish missions eventually closed (the last in 1702), and the English gradually pushed the Spanish out of Georgia.  James Oglethorpe established the English Colony of Georgia and the town of Savannah in 1733.  The few Catholics that lived in the Colony were not allowed to openly practice their religion until after the American Revolution.  Georgia became the fourth State in 1788.

The first English Catholic church in Georgia was established by settlers from Maryland in Locust Grove, east of Augusta.  They built a small log church in 1792 and built the first Catholic school in 1818.  Georgia became part of the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1820 and at that time there were fewer than 1,000 Catholics in the State with churches in Locust Grove, Savannah, and Augusta.  Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Savannah in 1850, at which time there were about 3,000 Catholics in Georgia served by a dozen parishes and priests.

The number of Catholics in Georgia continued to grow and in 1937, the name of the Diocese of Savannah was changed to the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta in recognition of the fact that Atlanta has surpassed Savannah as the largest city in Georgia by 1880 and had been the capital since 1868.  Atlanta became a separate diocese in 1956 and in 1962 it was raised to the status of an Archdiocese.

Francis X. Gartland was born in 1808 in Dublin, Ireland, and moved as a child with his parents and nine siblings to Philadelphia.  He attended seminary in Maryland and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Philadelphia in 1832.  He served as a pastor and as the Diocesan vicar general before being appointed the first Bishop of Savannah in 1850.  Gartland’s diocese consisted of Georgia and part of Florida and had fewer than 6,000 Catholics.  Bishop Gartland established three new parishes, an orphanage, a Catholic cemetery, and recruited priests from Ireland.  He was more interested in saving the souls of slaves than in freeing them from slavery.  A yellow fever epidemic struck Savannah in 1854 and Bishop Gartland ministered to victims before dying the same year.

John Barry was born in Ireland in 1799 and was recruited while still a seminarian to come to Charleston, South Carolina, by Bishop John England.  Barry continued his studies in Charleston and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Charleston in 1825.  He served as pastor in Augusta, Georgia (then part of the Diocese of Charleston) from 1830 to 1854.  During an 1832 cholera epidemic, Barry converted his rectory into a hospital.  When the Diocese of Savannah was created in 1850, Barry became a priest of the new Diocese and became vicar general for the Diocese in 1853.  Barry was named second Bishop of Savannah in 1857.  Bishop Barry established an orphanage and a school for boys.  He died during an 1859 trip to Paris to secure resources for the Diocese and to obtain medical treatment.

Augustin Verot was born in France in 1805 and ordained a Sulpician priest in 1828.  He came to Baltimore in 1830 and served as a pastor and seminary professor until being appointed the first Vicar Apostolic of Florida in 1856.  He served as vicar apostolic until 1870.  He also served as Bishop of Savannah, Georgia, from 1861 to 1870.  He was named the first Bishop of St. Augustine, Florida in 1870.  

Before and during the Civil War, Bishop Verot supported the right to own slaves, but opposed the slave trade and called for humane treatment of slaves.  After the War, he fought for the rights of the newly-freed slaves.  He and his priests were the only clergy to visit Union prisoners at the notorious Andersonville prisoner-of-war camp.  During the 1870 First Vatican Council, Verot was noted for his strong positions on several issues, including reconciliation with Protestants, greater recognition of scientific research, and recognition of the equality of people of African descent.  Many of his positions were not accepted until many years later.  He was named first Bishop of St. Augustine, Florida, in 1870, and he died in 1876.

Ignatius Persico was born in Italy in 1823 and entered the Franciscan Capuchins in 1939.  He was ordained a priest in 1846 and immediately sent to India.  He served as an assistant to a bishop in India and became a coadjutor bishop of what is now Mumbai in 1854.  He was named vicar apostolic of Tibet in 1856 until ill health forced him to resign in 1860 and return to Italy.  The Pope sent him on a mission to the United States in 1866 and he was named fourth Bishop of Savannah in 1870.

At the time Persico was named Bishop, the Diocese consisted only of Georgia and had 20,000 Catholics and 30 churches.  He continued the missionary work among African-Americans begun by Bishop Verot and built two churches.  He resigned due to ill health in 1872 and returned to Italy.  He served as a Vatican diplomat until he was name bishop of an Italian diocese in 1879.  He became an official in the Roman Curia in 1887, became a Cardinal in 1893, and died in 1895.

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 Redemporist 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.

Bishop Gross spent most of his time rebuilding the churches, schools, and other Catholic buildings damaged during the Civil War, including the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Savannah.  It was during his administration that the Sisters of Mercy established St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta.  He invited an order of nuns to work with African-Americans and invited the Jesuits to establish a seminary and college in Macon.  He also started a diocesan newspaper.  He was named Archbishop of Oregon City, Oregon, in 1885.  (The Archdiocese of Oregon City became the Archdiocese of Portland in 1928.)  He died in 1898 in Baltimore after giving a retreat in Annapolis, Maryland.

Thomas A. Becker was born to German Protestant parents in Pittsburgh in 1832.  While studying at the University of Virginia, he met Bishop John McGill of Richmond, who convinced him to convert to Catholicism in 1853.  The following year, Becker started seminary in Rome and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Richmond in 1859.   He was born as Thomas Baker, but his parents asked him to change his name after his conversion to Catholicism.  Becker served at parishes with the Diocese until the Civil War when he was appointed to the faculty at Mount St. Mary’s College in Maryland.  He later became secretary to the Archbishop of Baltimore and then as rector for the cathedral in Richmond.  Becker had been arrested at some point during the Civil War because of his pro-secessionist sympathies.  

Becker was appointed the first Bishop of Wilmington, Delaware, in 1868, and was appointed Bishop of Savanna in 1886.  He died in 1899.  Becker was one of the first bishops to advocate for a national Catholic university and he was a widely-read author and noted speaker.  He was an advocate of temperance and an early defender of workers’ rights. 

Pioneer Bishops of Florida

This blog will discuss bishops that served in Florida up to 1900.  For more information about Florida, see my blog of September 4, 2017.

The Spanish explorer, Juan Ponce de Leon, was the first European to come to Florida in 1513 and he named the land in honor of a Spanish Easter festival, Pascua Florida.  Other explorers followed until the Spanish established St. Augustine in 1565, making it the oldest European settlement in the United States.  Franciscan missionaries, some of whom lost their lives in the effort, were able to bring the Faith to the Native American people with some success, especially among the Timucua and Calusa tribes.  [A catechism and grammar were written in the Timucua language in the early 1600s—the first books of any kind written in a Native American language.]  By the mid-17th Century, the Franciscans served close to 30,000 converts at almost 40 missions.

Spanish settlements came under frequent attacks by Native Americans, the French, and especially the English.  An English raid on the missions in 1702 resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Native American Catholics and the enslavement of hundreds more.  Spain was forced to cede Florida to England in 1763 and most Florida Catholics left, including the few hundred remaining Native American Catholics.  England divided the colony in two, East Florida being modern-day Florida as far west as the Apalachicola River, and West Florida extending along the Gulf Coast to the Mississippi River (including parts of modern-day Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana).  Spain regained control of both Floridas in 1783.  West Florida became part of the United States in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase, although there was legal confusion about this until 1810.  Spain, England, and the United States fought over East Florida during and after the War of 1812 until Spain ceded Florida to the United States in 1819.  The Territory of Florida was created in 1822 and Florida became the 27th State in 1845.

Cuban bishops originally were in charge of the Spanish churches in Florida and in 1606, Bishop Cabeza de Altamirano of Santiago, Cuba, visited St. Augustine—the first Catholic bishop to visit what is now the United States.  Three auxiliary bishops from the Diocese of Santiago resided for periods of time in the 18th Century in St. Augustine—the first resident bishops in what is now the United States.  By the time Florida became a Territory, there were only about 600 Catholics living there.  Florida came under the jurisdiction of several U.S. bishops until 1857, when what used to be East Florida became the Vicariate Apostolic of Florida—a missionary diocese.  The 10 westernmost counties of Florida were part of the Diocese of Mobile, Alabama.  In 1857 there were six churches in Vicariate Apostolic—two in St. Augustine, and one each in Tallahassee, Key West, Jacksonville, and Palatka.  There were also churches in Pensacola and Apalachicola under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Mobile.

Pope Pius IX raised the Vicariate of Florida to the status of a diocese when he created the Diocese of St. Augustine in 1870.  St. Augustine had fewer than 2,000 people at the time—Jacksonville’s 6,000 people made it the largest municipality in Florida—but it had served as the capital of Spanish Florida and of English East Florida and had long been a center for Florida Catholicism.  In 1958, Pope Pius XII established southern Florida as the Diocese of Miami, which was then the largest city in Florida.  Florida’s population increased from 2.8 million in 1950 to 6.8 million in 1970.  In recognition of this growth, Pope Paul VI, in 1968, created the Province of Miami (making Miami an archdiocese), created the Dioceses of St. Petersburg and Orlando.  Pope Paul established the Diocese of Pensacola and Tallahassee in 1975 to served Catholics in the Panhandle.  Finally, Pope John Paul II created the southern Florida Dioceses of Palm Beach and Venice in 1984.

Augustin Verot was born in France in 1805 and ordained a Sulpician priest in 1828.  He came to Baltimore in 1830 and served as a pastor and seminary professor until being appointed the first Vicar Apostolic of Florida in 1857.  He served as vicar apostolic until 1870.  He also served as Bishop of Savannah, Georgia, from 1861 to 1870.  He was named the first Bishop of St. Augustine, Florida in 1870.  

When Verot first came to Florida in 1856, he found 3,000 Catholics, half of whom lived in St. Augustine.  There were six churches and three priests.  He invited religious orders to open schools for white children, as well as African-American children.  By 1870, when he became the first Bishop of St. Augustine, Florida had 8,000 Catholics served by eight priests.  Verot, no longer young, made annual visits, often on horseback, to each church and school in the Diocese, which included most of Florida.  He was an early booster of Florida and its temperate climate.  He died in 1876.

John Moore was born in Ireland in 1835 and moved with his family to Charleston, South Carolina, when he was 14.  He attended seminary in Charleston, France, and Rome, and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Charleston in 1860.  He served in several parishes in the Diocese until 1877 when he was appointed the second Bishop of the Diocese of St. Augustine, which then included all of Florida.

Bishop Moore recruited priests and nuns from his native Ireland to help him minister to Florida’s Catholics.  He also invited the Benedictines to administer three parishes near the Gulf Coast.  The Benedictines soon established St. Leo’s Abbey and University—the first Catholic college in Florida.  The Jesuits were invited (after several local priests died of yellow fever) to minister to Catholics in South Florida and they eventually administered six parishes and dozens of missions.  He continued Bishop Verot’s ministry to African-Americans and required annual reports from each parish.  He died in 1901 after suffering a stroke.

Pioneer Bishops of the District of Columbia

There were no bishops in the District of Columbia prior to 1900.  For more information about the District of Columbia, see my blog of December 10, 2016.

Washington D.C. was created in 1790 from portions of Maryland.  (Originally the District also included what is now Arlington and portions of Alexandria in Virginia.)  The rich history of Catholicism in Maryland carried over to the new nation’s capital.  A large portion of the new District—including the location for the Capitol—was obtained from Daniel Carroll and Notley Young, relatives of Archbishop John Carroll.  Many of Washington’s early local leaders were Catholic, including Robert Brent, the first mayor, William Kilty, the first chief judge for the district court, Captain Thomas Tingey, the first commandant of the Navy Yard, and James Hoben, architect of the White House.

Many of these prominent Catholics were English and they mixed well with the Protestant gentry—many of the prominent Washington families had both Catholic and Protestant branches.  It was in part because of this good will that Washington did not experience the same problems that other cities did during the nativist reaction to increased immigration—especially from Ireland.  Washington had attracted a number of Irish and German immigrants in the decades leading up to the Civil War and a nativist party—the Know Nothings—did gain control of the local government during a portion of the 1850s.  But their time in power was brief.

Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown was the first parish in the District of Columbia—it was established in 1787, three years before the District was established.  St. Patrick’s Church was founded in 1794—the first Catholic church in Washington.  (Washington and Georgetown were separate towns at that time.)  During Washington’s early years, local Catholic leaders hoped that someday Washington would have its own bishop and a location was set aside in 1801—Cathedral Square (now the site of St. Vincent de Paul Church on South Capitol Street)—for a cathedral church.  This was carried further when a new church was dedicated in 1895 for St. Matthew’s parish—a building no doubt meant to be a cathedral for some future bishop.

Nevertheless, despite being the nation’s capital, Washington remained part of the Archdiocese of Baltimore until 1939 when the Archdiocese of Washington was created, originally consisting of only the District of Columbia.  The new Archbishop of Washington was Michael Curley, who was also the Archbishop of Baltimore.  St. Matthew’s became the Cathedral church for the new archdiocese.  Washington did not get its own Archbishop until Curley died in 1947 and Pope Pius XII appointed Patrick O’Boyle to be the first resident archbishop.  At that time, the Archdiocese assumed its present territory of the District of Columbia and five Maryland counties.  The Archdiocese of Washington is one of only four U.S. archdioceses established without first being a diocese.