John Ireland (bishop)

John Ireland ( born September 11, 1838 in Burn Church, County Kilkenny, † September 25, 1918 ) was a native of Ireland Roman Catholic priest in the United States. From 1884 he was a bishop, from 1888 Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

Life

Irelands family left Ireland in the time of the great famine and settled in Saint Paul ( Minnesota). John Ireland received on 21 December 1861, the ordination. Until 1863 he was a chaplain in the American Civil War. In 1867 he was chaplain at the former cathedral of Saint Paul.

On February 12, 1875, he was named by Pope Pius IX. Titular Bishop of Maronea and Vicar Apostolic of Nebraska. Already on 28 July of the same year he was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Saint Paul. He received his episcopal consecration of the Bishop of Saint Paul, Thomas Langdon Grace OP, on December 21, 1875. Were co-consecrators the Bishop of La Crosse, Michael hot, and the Vicar Apostolic of Northern Minnesota, Rupert silk bush OSB.

With the resignation of his predecessor Thomas Langdon Grace on August 12, 1884, he succeeded him as Bishop of Saint Paul. With the elevation of Saint Paul to the archbishopric of 1888 he was archbishop.

John Ireland was a charismatic personality, decided church and decided patriotic. He worked far beyond the borders into his diocese in the U.S. church and society. He systematically promoted the immigration of Catholic Irish from urban slums and their equipment with farmland. During his tenure, 26 new parishes were created and five new dioceses created out of the Diocese of Saint Paul. Many Catholic schools, several colleges as well as the St. Thomas University in Saint Paul caused by his initiative. With the establishment of the Catholic University of America in Washington, he was one of the four bishops in the founding committee. Visible signs of resurgent Catholicism in his diocese, the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Saint Paul and St. Mary's Basilica in Minneapolis, whose construction he suggested and their completion he could still experience.

In 1917 he fell ill. At the funeral in September 1918 took part in a large crowd.