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| You are in: Museum of History >> Hall of North and South Americans >> James Roosevelt Bayley | |
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BAYLEY, James Roosevelt, R. C. archbishop, born in New York City, 23 August 1814; died in Newark, New Jersey, 3 October 1877. He received his early education in Mount Pleasant school near Amherst, and then entered Trinity College, Hartford, where he graduated in 1835.
As his father and grandfather had been eminent members of the medical profession, he determined to follow in their footsteps. But after studying medicine for a year, he abandoned it for theology, with the intention of entering the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church. His theological studies were pursued under the direction of the Rev. Samuel F. Jarvis at Middletown, Connecticut, and on their conclusion he was appointed rector of the Episcopal Church in Harlem, where he remained during 1840-'1. At this time the cholera was ravaging the City, and Mr. Bayley's devotion to its victims excited much admiration.
He had become dissatisfied with some of the doctrines of the Episcopal Church, and toward the end of 1841 resigned his charge and visited Europe. He was received into the Catholic Church at Rome in 1842, and entered the seminary of St. Sulpice, Paris, the same year, to prepare himself for the priesthood. He was recalled by Bishop Hughes and ordained in 1844, and then sent to St. John's College, Fordham, and became vice-president of that institution until 1845, and acting president in 1846.
He was next appointed pastor of a Church on Staten Island, near the lower quarantine, and also chaplain to the ship-fever hospital. Bishop Hughes made him his private secretary in December 1846, and he did much to secure the success of the bishop's plans for the progress of the Catholic Church in New York. He also collected a mass of valuable information in regard to the early history of the Catholic Church in New York, much of which would have perished but for his researches.
In 1853, on the recommendation of Archbishop Hughes and his suffragans, he was created the first bishop of Newark. He took possession of his diocese on 1 November of the same year, and found it was a poorly cultivated missionary district, with few priests and no Catholic institutions; but he soon made it one of the most prosperous dioceses in the United States.
One of his first efforts was to establish Seton Hall College at South Orange, in 1856. A theological seminary was next attached to the College, from which a, large number of graduates have entered the ministry. He brought a colony of nuns from Europe, by whose aid he founded the convent at Madison, New Jersey, for the instruction of young girls. He introduced throughout the diocese the religious orders of Passionists, Dominicans, Augustinians, and others.
He was an extensive traveler, and made several journeys to Europe and the Holy Land; visited Rome officially in 1862 for the canonization of the Japanese martyrs, and in 1867 for the centenary of the apostles. In 1869 he took part in the deliberations of the Vatican I ecumenical council. His observations during his travels took the form of lectures delivered in his diocese and elsewhere.
By a papal brief he was translated to the see of Baltimore in 1872, which is the highest in rank in the United States. His health steadily declined; but he worked as earnestly as ever, and through his exertions the cathedral of Baltimore was freed from debt, and he was thus enabled to consecrate it after his installation. He was created apostolic delegate in 1875, and in this capacity imposed the beretta on Cardinal McCloskey.
He went to Europe in April 1877, hoping to derive benefit from the Vichy waters ; but grew worse, and returned to America to die. He published a "Sketch of the History of the Catholic Church on the Island of New York" (New York, 1853; revised ed., 1869); "Memoirs of Simon Gabriel Brute, First Bishop of Vincennes" (1860)' and "Pastorals for the People."
Edited Appletons Encyclopedia by John Looby, Copyright © 2001 VirtualologyTM