John Baptist Purcell
His Excellency, the Most Reverend John Baptist Purcell | |
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Archbishop of Cincinnati | |
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Archdiocese | Cincinnati |
In office | 1833-1883 |
Predecessor | Edward Fenwick O.P. |
Successor | William Henry Elder |
Other post(s) | Assistant to the Papal Throne |
Orders | |
Ordination | May 26th, 1826 by Hyacinth-Louis de Quelen, COHS |
Consecration | October 13th, 1833 by James Whitfield |
Personal details | |
Born | February 26th, 1800 Mallow, County Cork, Ireland |
Died | July 4th, 1883 (aged 83) Brown County, Ohio, USA |
Buried | Saint Martin, Brown County, Ohio, USA [2] |
Denomination | Roman Catholic |
Signature | ![]() |
Styles of John Baptist Purcell | |
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Your Excellency | |
Religious style | Monsignor |
John Baptist Purcell (February 26, 1800 – July 4, 1883[1]) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Cincinnati from 1833 to his death in 1883, and he was elevated to the rank of archbishop in 1850. He formed the basis of Father Ferrand, the Ohio-based "Irish by birth, French by ancestry" character in the prologue of Willa Cather's historical novel Death Comes for the Archbishop who goes to Rome asking for a bishop for New Mexico Territory.
Early life and education
John Baptist Purcell was born at
On June 20, 1820, he entered Mount St. Mary's Seminary, Emmitsburg, Maryland. His knowledge of the classics helped him take charge of important classes in the college, and at the same time prepare himself for the priesthood by the study of philosophy, theology, and other branches of the ecclesiastical curriculum.[3]
After three years' study in the seminary he received
Career
After his ordination, Purcell continued his studies until the autumn of 1827, when he returned to the United States to enter Mount St. Mary's Seminary as professor. He afterwards became president, until his appointment as
Going from Baltimore by stage to Wheeling, and from Wheeling to Cincinnati by steamboat, he reached his destination on November 14, 1833. Bishops Benedict Joseph Flaget and John Baptist Mary David of Bardstown, Rese of Detroit, and a few priests met him and conducted him to the cathedral, which was on Sycamore Street. He was canonically installed by Bishop Flaget.[2]
Founder bishop
On his arrival in 1833 Bishop Purcell found himself in a city of about 30,000 inhabitants and only one Catholic church. The diocese embraced the whole State of Ohio. The difficulties increased, for soon the tide of immigration turned towards Ohio. Immigrants from Germany and Ireland came in thousands, and as most were Catholics it became his duty to provide for their spiritual needs. A seminary had been founded by Bishop Fenwick in the Athenaeum, which stood near the cathedral, but the number of students was as yet very small. He was untiring in his labour, preaching and giving lectures, writing articles for the Telegraph, a Catholic paper founded by Father Young, a nephew of Bishop Fenwick, the first Catholic paper published in the West. He taught classes in the seminary. At his first ordination he raised to the priesthood Henry Damian Juncker, afterwards first Bishop of Alton, Illinois. He lost no time in providing for the wants of the growing Church in Cincinnati. Holy Trinity on Fifth Street, the first church built for the German-speaking Catholics,[2] was soon followed by another, St. Mary's, at Clay and Thirteenth Streets.
In order to staff the seminary and school, Purcell invited the Jesuit Fathers, to whom he entrusted St. Xavier's Church on Sycamore Street. He purchased a site for his new cathedral on Plum and Eighth Streets, and Western Row (now Central Avenue), then the western boundary of Cincinnati. Bishop Purcell began constructing a structure built of Dayton limestone, with a spire of solid stone rising to the height of 225 feet.
He made a complete visitation of his extensive diocese the first year of his administration, placing resident pastors in parishes or having priests to visit regularly the smaller communities that were unable to support a resident pastor. Bishop Purcell made several trips to Europe, visiting the various seminaries there, and recruiting missionaries for Ohio and points further west. On one trip, Bishop Purcell returned with Fathers Joseph Projectus Machebeuf and Jean-Baptiste Lamy. Father Machebeuf afterward became the first Bishop of Denver; Father Lamy, the first Archbishop of Santa Fé. In addition, pioneer missionary Stephen Badin spent his last years in the care of the cathedral.
Archbishop
Cincinnati was made a Metropolitan See in 1850.
The following religious orders came to the archdiocese during the incumbency of Archbishop Purcell: the
In 1869, Archbishop Purcell attended the
Response to Anti-Catholicism
The Catholic Church was unfavourably viewed by non-Catholics at the time, owing to the spread of anti-Catholic literature. One of the most salient events of his episcopate was a series of religious debates with Alexander Campbell (minister). The discussion was to be taken down by shorthand writers, printed after revision by the disputants, and sold, the net proceeds to be distributed equally among Catholic and Protestant charities.[5]
In 1853, Purcell alienated Cincinnati's Protestants by arguing that Catholics should not be taxed to support public schools.
Slavery and the Civil War
Until 1861, Archbishop Purcell condemned slavery only in the "abstract", emphasizing the "prudential motives" that made abolition ill-advised, in his opinion.[8] However, according to David J. Endres, "Archbishop John Baptist Purcell of Cincinnati was ...the first American Catholic bishop to offer public support for immediate emancipation of slaves."[9]
Later years
Archbishop Purcell celebrated his golden jubilee of priesthood 26 May 1876. Bishops and archbishops came personally or sent representatives. He had reason to rejoice when he saw the result of his work. When he came to Cincinnati he found a small city with but one church, and a diocese with a few Catholics scattered through the state. After 43 years of toil he found the city grown to a population of nearly 300,000, with 40 well-organized parishes having schools giving Catholic education to 20,000 children, a well-equipped seminary, colleges, and charitable institutions to take care of the poor and sick.[3]
Throughout the diocese were well-organized parishes, churches, and parish schools. Forty years before he had only a few priests; in 1876 he could count on the help of 150 diocesan and 50 regular priests, and a Catholic population of 150,000. In reply to the addresses of congratulation on the occasion, he modestly referred the success to the cordial assistance of the priests and the generous aid of the laity. The serious financial disaster that clouded his last years came as a result of his natural brother and fellow priest, Father Edward Purcell, as well as the long-lasting effects of the Panic of 1873, also known as the Long Depression. Father Purcell took deposits from people who mistrusted banks, which were unstable institutions until the general government adopted national banking regulation. The Cincinnati crash or scandal occurred in the autumn of 1878, shortly after the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was suppressed. The archbishop died five years later, in St. Martin, Ohio, on July 4, 1883.[10]
After 14 years of litigation and mismanagement of assignees, the affair came to an end when the court found the amount due (with compound interest) from the cathedral and diocesan institutions to be $140,000. Archbishop William Henry Elder, who succeeded Archbishop Purcell, accepted the findings in 1892 and assessed parishes to meet the loans made to pay the judgment, and all the loans were repaid.[3]
Notes
- ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: John Baptist Purcell". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
- ^ a b c McCann, Mary Agnes. "The Most Reverend John Baptist Purcell, D.D., Archbishop of Cincinnati (1800-1883)", Catholic Historical Review, July 1920
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ a b c d e Murray, John. "John Baptist Purcell." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. October 3, 2015
- ^ Review of "Archbishop Purcell and the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. A Study Based on Original Sources" by Sister Mary Agnes McCann, The Catholic Historical Review, Vol. 4, No. 3 (October 1918), pp. 375-378
- ^ Alexander Campbell and John Baptist Purcell (1837). A Debate on the Roman Catholic Religion: Held in the Sycamore-Street Meeting House, Cincinnati, from the 13th to the 21st of January, 1837. Cincinnati: J. A. James & Co.
- ISBN 0-87338-340-0.
- ISBN 88-7652-082-1. Retrieved October 25, 2010.
- ^ Catholicism and American Freedom, John McGreevy, W. W. Norton, 2003, p. 82.
- ^ "Endres, David J., "Rectifying the Fatal Contrast: Archbishop John Purcell and the Slavery Controversy among Catholics in Civil War Cincinnati", Ohio Valley History, Fall 2002" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 11, 2015. Retrieved October 4, 2015.
- ^ "Gone To Rest". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. July 5, 1883. p. 1. Retrieved March 18, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "John Baptist Purcell". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Further reading
- Hussey, M. Edmund; Archbishop Purcell of Cincinnati (Amazon Kindle ASIN: B006PSMBKI; Barnes and Noble Nook BN ID: 2940013794016)