Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/98

 BYRNE.

BYRNE.

parochial schools. He attended the sixth provin- cial council, and in 1856 attended the first pro- vincial council of New Orleans. His efforts were constant and widespread, his zeal unflagging. The Catholic population to which he ministered increased from five thousand in l!-!44 to over fifty thousand in 1862, and his efforts in behalf of Catholic immigration to his diocese were of great benefit to the south and west, in furnishing an industrious class of settlers. Bishop Byrne died at Helena, Ark., Jan. 10. 1863.

BYRNE, Thomas Sebastian, R.C. bishop, was born at Hamilton, Ohio, July 19, 1841, of Irish parents. His father died when he was but nine years old. and the direction of his early education and religious training entirely de- volved on his mother. He was sent to such schools as the town of Hamilton afl'orded. and at the age of eleven was apprenticed to learn a trade. He served his time and became a practi- cal and skilled machinist. This walk in hfe did not satisfy the natural craving of his soul ; he was ambitious to become a priest, and having accumulated enougli money by his savings to pay his way through the preparatory seminary, he, at the age of eighteen, entered St. Thomas' seminary, Bardstown. Ky. From there he was advanced to St. Marj-'s of the West, where he finished his classics under Father Xavier Donald McLeod. After a year's philosophy, Archbishop Purcell decided, in December, 1865, that he should be sent to the American college in Rome to complete his course. He pursued his studies in theology- and philosophy for nearly three years at this institution, when his health began to fail and he was recalled to Cincinnati, and on Dec. 16, 1868, he received, from Archbishop Purcell, tonsure and minor orders in the chapel of the sem- inary ; on December 18 he was made sub-deacon, and deacon on the following day. He was then appointed a member of the seminary faculty and the important ofiice of procurator was intrusted to him. On May 22, 1869, he was ordained a priest in the seminary chapel by Archbishop Purcell. In 1877 Father Byrne was placed in charge of the church of St. Yincent-de-Paul, and in 1879, when the seminary was closed, he took up his permanent residence at St. Joseph's, the Mother house of the sisters of charity, until 1886, when he was appointed pastor of the cathedral in Cincinnati. He had about completed the "Springer Institute," one of the finest school buildings in the archdiocese, when, in 1887, the generous bequest of Mr. Reuben Springer made possible the reopening of the seminary, of which Dr. Byrne was appointed rector. On July 25, 1894, in St. Joseph's church, Nashville, Tenn., he was consecrated fifth bishop of the diocese by the archbishop of Cincinnati, assisted by the

bishop of Columbus and tlie bishop of Coving- ton. In connection with Dr. Pabi.sch of the seminary lie published Alzoy's Universal Church Hidorij.

BYRNE, William, educator, was born in Wicklow, Ireland, in 1780; of hvimble, hard- working parents, who were not able to encour- age the ambition of tlie boy to become a priest, and he worked for the support of his brothers and sisters until he was twenty-five years old. In 1805 he emigrated to America and proceeded at once to seek admission to Georgetown college, D. C. He was refused matriculation on account- of his deficient preparation, but nothing daunted he applied to Mount St. Mary's, Emmittsburg, Md., and was given admission, and when thirty years old began his Latin grammar. His progress was rapid and in a few years he took his theo- logical course at St. Mary's seminary, Baltimore. He was ordained a priest in 1819, and in 1821 located in Marion county, Ky., where he built St. Mary's college on Mount Mary farm. In 1831 after it had, imder his direction, become one of the most flourishing Catholic schools in the state, he turned it over to the Jesuits, and he remained one year as its president, that no sudden transi- tion in its government should work harm to its future welfare. On relinquishing his office he ministered in the neigborhood among the negroes, and while so engaged contracted chol- era, from which he died in 1833.

BYRNE, William, clergyman, was born in the parish of Kilmessan, County Meath, Ireland, in 1836. He obtained his primary education in the national school of his native village, removed to the United States in 1853, and in 1855 began to read Latin and Greek in St. Mary's college, AVil- mington, Del. He entered Mount St. Mary's col- lege, Emmittsburg, Md., Sept. 1858, where he finished his classical and philo.sophical studies and graduated in 1860. After four years of theological study he was ordained priest in the Baltimore cathedral, by Archbishop Spalding, Dec. 31, 1864, For some years before his ordina- tion, and for about a year after, he was professor of Greek and mathematics in Mount St. Mary's college. In the fall of 1865 he was called to Bos- ton and assigned to duty at the cathedral. April 2, 1866, he was given charge of the chancery office, by the Rt. Rev. Jolm J. Williams, D.D., who was consecrated bishop in March of that year. He held that position for ten years, when he was ap- pointed rector of St. Mary's church. Charlestown, and July 15, 1878, was made vicar-general of the archdiocese of Boston. In 1881 Yicar-General Byrne rendered a conspicuous service to the R. C. church in America by accepting, on the invitation of the faculty and the advice of Cardinal Mc- Closkey and Archbishop Gibbons, the presidency-