Bishop john ireland biography

  • John Ireland was an American prelate who was the third Catholic bishop and first archbishop of Saint Paul, Minnesota.
  • John Ireland was the first archbishop of St. Paul; head of the liberal Roman Catholic clergy who promoted the integration of predominantly immigrant.
  • John Ireland was born in Ireland; his family came to the U.S. and eventually settled in Saint Paul.
  • Read theology professor Bernard Brady's remarks at the Sept. 25 celebration of Founder's Day at St. Thomas.

    Each day hundreds, perhaps thousands, of students walk by the bronze statue of Archbishop John Ireland, which looks out on the lower quad of the campus. While he may be largely forgotten today, when he died in 1918, he was one of the most famous men in Minnesota and a legendary American bishop.

    There is a story, perhaps apocryphal, told about John Gregory Murray, a former archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis. One day in the early 1950s, he came into the dining room at the Cathedral of St. Paul rectory, for lunch with some of his priests, with a great smile on his face. “I have just met a man,” he happily told them, “who has never heard of John Ireland!”

    It must have been a rare man who Murray met that day, for every one of Ireland’s successors has lived and worked in the shadow of the first archbishop of St. Paul. It is difficult to overestimate the deep formative influence that Ireland exercised on the Church and the larger community in his 43 years as a bishop in Minnesota.

    From a rudimentary education to a cultured French seminary

    He was, of course, the founder of the University of St. Thomas, a project that was particularly close to his heart and received hi

    John Ireland (bishop)

    Catholic archbishop remind Saint Libber, Minnesota

    The Most Reverend


    John Ireland

    ArchdioceseSaint Paul
    DioceseSaint Paul
    AppointedJuly 28, 1875
    InstalledJuly 31, 1884
    Term endedSeptember 25, 1918
    PredecessorThomas Grace
    SuccessorAustin Dowling
    OrdinationDecember 21, 1861
    by Joseph Crétin
    ConsecrationDecember 21, 1875
    by Thomas Grace, Archangel Heiss, give orders to Rupert Seidenbusch
    Bornunknown, baptized (1838-09-11)September 11, 1838

    Burnchurch, County Kilkenny, Ireland, Combined Kingdom

    DiedSeptember 25, 1918(1918-09-25) (aged 80)
    Saint Paul, Minnesota

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    John Ireland was born in Burnchurch, Kilkenny and baptised on the 11th of September 1838.

    John's family immigrated to the United States in 1848 and eventually moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1852. One year later, Joseph Crétin, first bishop of Saint Paul, sent Ireland to the preparatory seminary of Meximieux in France. Ireland was consequently ordained in 1861 in Saint Paul. He served as a chaplain of the Fifth Minnesota Regiment in the Civil War until 1863 when ill health caused his resignation. Later, he was famous nationwide in the Grand Army of the Republic.

    He was appointed pastor at Saint Paul's cathedral in 1867, a position which he held until 1875. In 1875 he was made coadjutor bishop of St. Paul and in 1884 he became bishop ordinary. In 1888 he became archbishop with the elevation of his diocese and the erection of the ecclesiastical province of Saint Paul. Ireland retained this title for 30 years until his death in 1918. Before Ireland died he burned all of his personal papers.

    John Ireland was personal friends with Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. At a time when most Irish Catholics were staunch Democrats, Ireland was known for being close to the Republican party. He opposed racial inequality and c

  • bishop john ireland biography