Samuel Eccleston

Samuel Eccleston PSS ( * June 27, 1801 in Kent County, Maryland, † April 22, 1851 in Georgetown) was Archbishop of Baltimore.

Life

Samuel Eccleston was born in 1801 in Kent County, Maryland, the son of an Episcopal clergyman. Eccleston studied at St. Mary's College in Baltimore. At this time he turned to the Catholic faith and converted on 29 May 1819. Upon his conversion he attended St. Mary 's Seminary and was ordained by Archbishop Ambrose Maréchal on 24 April 1825 priests. In the same year he joined the Sulpizianern and attended the seminary at Issy, near Paris, where he continued his studies. After his return to the United States was Eccleston faculty member and vice president of the St. Mary 's College. In 1829 he was appointed president of the St. Mary 's College and held this position until 1834.

On March 4, 1834 Eccleston was of Pope Gregory XVI. appointed Koadjutorerzbischof of Baltimore and Titular Archbishop of Thermae Basilicae. He received his episcopal consecration on 14 September by Archbishop James Whitfield in the Cathedral of Baltimore. After his death Eccleston became the new archbishop of Baltimore as well as new Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Richmond. The Office of the Administrator he had held until 1840, when Richard Vincent Whelan Bishop of Richmond was. During his tenure as archbishop, he founded the St. Charles Minor Seminary in Catonsville, a seminary that produced many future bishops and archbishops of the Archbishopric of Baltimore. Eccleston died on April 22, 1851 at the age of 49 years during a stay in Georgetown.