Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/699

 EENRICE

619

KENRICK

doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Tlie latter part of the same year found him back in Rome as a participant in the ceremonies attendant on the procla- mation of that dogma.

A fresh outbreak of anti-Catholic fury took place soon after the archltishop's return, occasioned by the arrival of Monsignor Bedini as papal nuncio, and the inflammatory and lying speeches of the ex-priest, Alessandro Gavazzi, on the nuncio's action while in Bologna during the rising against Austria. Many churches and convents were burned as in the previous outbreak, and many lives were lost in New England and Kentucky, in Cincinnati and other cities. But no religious disturbances occurred in Maryland to per- turb the archbishop's closing years. The Civil War, however, soon came to rend his heart, and he died on the morning after the battle of Gettysburg (8 July, 1863), his end being hastened, it was beheved, by the rumours of the terrible slaughter that went on not far from his residence. When Bishop Kenrick went to Philadelphia inl830 there were only four churches in the city and one in the suburbs, and ten priests; when he left it in 1857, the diocese contained 94 churches and many religious institutions, and was the home of 101 priests and 46 seminarians, besides numerous re- ligious orders. The chief literary works of Archbishop Kenrick were a new translation of the Bible, with a commentary; a "Moral and Dogmatic Theology"; a " Commentary on the Book of Job " ; " The Primacy of Peter", and letters to the Protestant bishops of the United States on Christian unit}'.

II. — Peter Rich.\rd had to work closely in the scrivener's office of his father after the latter's death in order to help to maintain his mother and himself, as well as carry on the business, but was enabled by his own industry and his uncle's help to enter Maynooth College at the age of twenty-one. Previous to his entry he had been tolerably well trained in Latin and other essentials by Father Richard, while his taste for secu- lar literature had been acquired through associations with the unfortunate poet and litterateur, James Clar- ence Mangan, who had for several years worked beside him as a clerk at the scrivener's desk. After five years' assiduous study he was ordained to the priest- hood by Archbishop Murray of Dublin, and, on the death of his mother, after a few months of local mis- sionary work, left for the United States on the invita- tion of his brother and took up work with liim in Philadelphia. He was given the post of president of the seminary as well as that of rector of the cathedral and vicar-general of the diocese. This was in the lat- ter part of 1833. During his seven years of missionary work with his brother he produced several works which built uji his fame as a theologian, as " Vahdity of An- glican Ordinations Examined" (Philadelphia, 1841), "New Month of Mary", and "History of the Holy House of Loretto ". In 1840 he left for Rome, with the idea of entering the Jesuit Order, but was dissuaded from carrying out his intention by the superior in Rome. Bishop Rosati met the young priest there, and requested the Holy See to give him to the See of St. Louis as his coadjutor, so pleased was he with his char- acter and qualities. The Holy See assented, and both returned from Rome to have the ceremony of consecra- tion performed in the L'nited States. This was done in Philadelphia, Bishop Rosati officiating and the new prelate's brother and Bishop Lefevre of Detroit assist- ing, while Bishop England delivered the consecration sermon.

The new bishop was given the title of Drasa, and had the right of succession in St. Louis. Bishop Ro- sati died a short time afterwards on a special mission in Haiti, and the care of the diocese devolved upon his young coadjutor at a much earlier period than either could have anticipated. It was no sinecure, for the financial affairs of the Church in St. Louis were in a deplorable condition. There was a very heavy debt on

the cathedral, and he found the Catholics of the dio- cese by no means anxious to remove it. The bishop then saw that he must either resign or get other means of raising funds, and he took the bold course of getting into the real-estate business. He was most successful. A local gentleman named Thornton made a bequest of 300,000 dollars to the Church; others deposited their money with the bishop; he made fortunate invest- ments in real estate; and, when values generally de- clined on the outbreak of the Civil War, he paid all his depositors in gold. The St. Louis diocese was enor- mous in extent at that time, as it embraced the whole of the States of Missouri and Arkansas, and half of Illinois; the task of visitation was one of immense toil, but the new bishop did not shrink from it. He had for helper and companion Rev. Thomas Cusack, with whom he had often to ride hundreds of miles on horse- back, and sleep at night-time in a log cabin or boarded hut. The paucity of churches in the diocese he also found a great drawback, the lack of clergy was another. He soon obtained much help from the Lazarists and Jesuits, as well as from the German population. The Visitation nuns and Sisters of St. Joseph, as well as the Sisters of Charity driven out by fire and flood from other places, came to St. Louis, and soon matters l^e- gan to look brighter for the bishop. By a Brief from Pope Pius IX, the dignity of archbishop was bestowed upon him; and at the Seventh Provincial Council of Baltimore a petition to have five suffragan bishops appointed — namely for St. Paul, Dubuque, Nashville, Chicago, and Milwaukee — was adopted, and was granted by the Holy See. After consecrating many bishops and ordaining many priests, the archbishop went to Baltimore to attend the First Plenary Coun- cil, and made a profound impression on the assembly by his logical keenness and his great erudition.

The Civil War found liim a resolute defender of the Church's position, when the "Drake Constitution", which proposed a test oath for all ministers of rehgion, was passed in Missouri. He sent out an order that all his clergy must refuse to take the oath, as its terms were insulting. Some of the clergy were sent to prison for doing so, but the archbishop took their cases from court to court and ultimately succeeded in having the Drake Law declared unconstitutional. At the Vatican Council of December, 1869, he was one of the prelates who were opposed to the definition of the dogma of Papal Infallibility, and voted " non placet " at the pre- liminary private sitting. He did not attend the session at which the dogma was promulgated, but publicly submitted to the voice of the majority as the authority of the Church, when he learned of the proclamation. For coadjutor bishops he had firstly the Right Rev- erend P. J. Ryan, and secondly the Right Reverend John J. Kain, who on his tlcath succeeded him. The archbishop's golden jubilee was celebrated with great distinction in 1891, but he was then in very feeble health. He died on 3 March two years afterwards. His best known work, besides "Anglican Ordinations", is the " Month of Mary " (Philadelphia, 1843). The growth of the St. Louis province under liis rule was de- scribed by Archbishop Hennessy at the juliilee cele- bration in 1891 as "stupendous". During his episco- pate sixteen new sees were carved out of the original Diocese of St. Louis, viz. Little Rock (1843); Santa F6 and St. Paul (1850); Leavenworth (1851); Alton and Omaha (1857); Green Bay, La Crosse, St. Joseph, and Denver (1868) ; Kansas City (1880) ; Davenport (1881) ; Wichita, Cheyenne, Concordia, and Lincoln (1887).

Kenrick, M.S. Diary and Itinerary in Philadelphia Archives and Correspotidence in Archives of Baltimore and St. Louis; Clarke. Lives of Deceased Prelates (New York, 1872); Shea, Catholic Church in the United States (New York, 1892) ; O'Con- nor, Archbishop Kenrick and His Work (Philadelphia, 1867); Spalding, Sketches (Baltimore, 1800); Webb, Centenary of Catholicism in Kentucky (Louisville. 1884); Walsh, Jubilee Memoir (St. Louis, 1891); Valette, Catholicity in Eastern Pennsylvania in Catholic Record (Philadelphia, ISOfl).

John J. O'Shea.