Bishop john ireland biography

Catholic archbishop of Saint Paul, Minnesota

John Ireland (baptized September 11, 1838 – September 25, 1918) was an American prelate who was the third Catholic bishop and first archbishop of Saint Paul, Minnesota (1888–1918). He became both a religious as well as civic leader in Saint Paul during the turn of the 20th century. Ireland was known for his progressive stance on education, immigration and relations between church and state, as well as his opposition to saloons, alcoholism, political machines, and political corruption.

He promoted the Americanization of Catholicism, especially through imposing the English only movement on Catholic parishes by force, a private war against the Eastern Catholic Churches, seeking to make Catholic schools identical to public schools through the Poughkeepsie plan, and through other progressive social ideas. He was widely considered the primary leader of the modernizing element in the Catholic Church in the United States during the Progressive Era, which brought him into open conflict over minority language rights and theology with both his suffragen Bishop Otto Zardetti and eventually with Pope Leo XIII, whose Apostolic letter Testem benevolentiae nostrae condemned Archbishop Ireland's ideas as the heresy of Americanism. He also created or helped to create many religious and educational institutions in Minneso

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 his very personal attention. He also was responsible for the construction of the present Cathedral, on the highest point of land in St. Paul (to overlook the capitol building), and the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis and established several dioceses and many parishes.

He led a temperance movement, served as the chaplain to a Minnesota regiment in the Civil War, and was the friend of presidents. His energy and boldness were legendary. On one occasion, another bishop described him, with affection, as “the consecrated blizzard of the Northwest,” an image Minnesotans will appreciate. A later writer, however, disagreed and claimed that he was more like a “prairie fire,” valiant, impulsive, ide

English Anglican priest, Dean of Westminster

John Ireland (8 September 1761 – 2 September 1842) was an English Anglican priest, who served as Dean of Westminster from 1816 until his death. In this role, he carried the crown during the coronation services at Westminster Abbey of two monarchs (George IV in 1821, William IV in 1831). Theologically and politically conservative, as shown in his writings, he was generous with the considerable riches that he acquired during his career, making large donations to support education and relieve poverty in his home town. In 1831, as Ireland was "a distinguished Benefactor of the University", Oxford had sought and obtained his permission to put on display a marble bust of him by the sculptor Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey. The bust is now in the Examination Schools of the university. During his lifetime, he established scholarships at the University of Oxford, and in his will, he left money to establish the post of Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture.

Life

Ireland was the son of Thomas Ireland, a butcher from Ashburton, Devon; his mother was called Elizabeth. He was born in Asbburton on 8 September 1761 and was taught at the grammar school there before moving to the University of Oxford. He matriculated at Oxford on 8 December 1779, as a member of Oriel College. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in June 1783; he later obtained the degrees of Master of Arts (June 1810), and Bachelor and Doctor of Divinity (October 1810). After obtaining his first degree, he was ordained as a priest in the Church of England, and was a curate near his home town for a time, before travelling abroad with the son of Sir James Wright, 1st Baronet, acting as the boy's tutor. He was then vicar of Croydon, south of London, between 1793 and 1816.

Westminster Abbey

As well as ministering in Croydon, he was chaplain to the statesman Charles Jenk

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

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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.

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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.

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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 called for "equal rights and equal privileges, political, civil, and social." Ireland's funeral was attended by eight archbishops, thirty bishops, twelve monsignors, seven hundred priests and two hundred seminarians.

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The influence of his personality made Archbishop Ireland a commanding figure in many important movements, especially those for total abstinence, for colonisation in the Northwest, and modern education. Ireland became a leading civic and religious leader during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Saint Paul. He worked closely with non-Catholics and was recognised by them as a leader of the modernising Catholics.

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He died on the 25th of September 191