QUARTER, William - A Stan Klos Website
QUARTER, William, R. C. bishop, born in Killurine,
King's County, Ireland, 24 January, 1806; died in Chicago, Illinois, 10 April,
1848. He received his early training in the classical seminary of Tullamore, and
was preparing for the ecclesiastical college of Maynooth when he met a priest
who had returned from the United States. The accounts he heard of the spiritual
destitution of his countrymen induced him to go thither, and he landed in Quebec
on 10 April, 1822. He applied for admission into the seminary, but was rejected
on account of his youth, and met with a similar refusal at Montreal, but, after
traveling through the United States, he was finally received into Mount St.
Mary's College, Emmettsburg, Maryland. He became professor of Latin and Greek
there, studied philosophy and theology at the same time, and was ordained priest
on 4 September, 1829.
He was appointed assistant pastor of St. Peter's Church,
New York, where, during the cholera epidemic of 1832, he displayed great
self-sacrifice. He gathered the children that had been made orphans by the
visitation, and entrusted them to the care of the Sisters of Charity, spending
all his means on their maintenance. He was appointed pastor of St. Mary's parish
in 1833, rebuilt the church, which had been burned, and founded a select and a
free school in connection with it.
In 1843 his name was transmitted to the pope by the
council of Baltimore, which had just created the diocese of Chicago. He received
the pontifical briefs on 30 September, and was consecrated first bishop of
Chicago in the cathedral of New York on 10 March, 1844, by Archbishop Hughes. He
completed the Chicago cathedral from his own resources and the contributions of
members of his family, opened several Roman Catholic schools, and founded a
college which afterward was developed into the University of St. Mary's of the
Lake.
In 1845 he went to New York to collect money for an
ecclesiastical seminary, and in 1846 it was completed and organized. In the same
year he introduced the Sisters of Mercy, and built a convent for them in
Chicago, which soon sent out branches to every part of Illinois. He was the
first, bishop in the United States to establish theological conferences, at
which the clergymen of his diocese assembled twice a year for the discussion of
ecclesiastical statutes and questions relating to their calling. He was
particularly attentive to the emigrants that were then flocking into the
country, and organized benevolent societies to aid them.
Edited Appletons Encyclopedia by John Looby, Copyright © 2001
StanKlos.comTM
QUARTER, William, R. C. bishop, born in Killurine, King's County, Ireland, 24 January, 1806; died in Chicago, Illinois, 10 April, 1848. He received his early training in the classical seminary of Tullamore, and was preparing for the ecclesiastical college of Maynooth when he met a priest who had returned from the United States. The accounts he heard of the spiritual destitution of his countrymen induced him to Co thither, and he landed in Quebec on 10 April, 1822. He applied for admission into the seminary, but was rejected on account of his youth, and met with a similar refusal at Montreal, but, after travelling through the United States, he was finally received into Mount St. Mary's college, Emmettsburg, Maryland He became professor of Latin and Greek there, studied philosophy and theology at the same time, and was ordained priest on 4 September, 1829. He was appointed assistant pastor of St. Peter's church, New York, where, during the cholera epidemic of 1832, he displayed great self-sacrifice. He gathered the children that had been made orphans by the visitation, and intrusted them to the care of the Sisters of Charity, spending all his means on their maintenance. He was appointed pastor of St. Mary's parish in 1833, rebuilt the church, which had been burned, and founded a select and a free school in connection with it. In 1843 his name was transmitted to the pope by the council of Baltimore, which had just created the diocese of Chicago. He received the pontifical briefs on 30 September, and was consecrated first bishop of Chicago in the cathedral of New York on 10 March, 1844, by Archbishop Hughes. He completed the Chicago cathedral from his own resources and the contributions of members of his family, opened several Roman Catholic schools, and founded a college which afterward was developed into the University of St. Mary's of the Lake. In 1845 he went to New York to collect money for an ecclesiastical seminary, and in 1846 it was completed and organized. In the same year he introduced the Sisters of Mercy, and built a convent for them in Chicago, which soon sent out, branches to every part of Illinois. He was the first, bishop in the United States to establish theological conferences, at which the clergymen of his diocese assembled twice a year for the discussion of ecclesiastical statutes and questions relating to their calling. He was particularly attentive to the emigrants that were then flocking into the country, and organized benevolent societies to aid them.
