Benedict Joseph Fenwick
Catholic bishop
Died when: 63 years 342 days (767 months)Star Sign: Virgo
Benedict Joseph Fenwick SJ (September 3, 1782 – August 11, 1846) was an American Catholic prelate, Jesuit, and educator who served as the Bishop of Boston from 1825 until his death in 1846.
In 1843, he founded the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.Prior to that, he was twice the president of Georgetown College and established several educational institutions in New York City and Boston.
Born in Maryland, Fenwick entered the Society of Jesus and began his ministry in New York City in 1809 as the co-pastor of St.
Peter's Church.He then became pastor of the original St.Patrick's Cathedral and later the vicar general and diocesan administrator of the Diocese of New York.
In 1817, Fenwick became the president of Georgetown College, remaining just several months before he was tasked with resolving a longstanding schism at St.
Mary's Church in Charleston, South Carolina.He remained in the city as vicar general for the Archdiocese of Baltimore until 1822, when he returned to Georgetown as acting president.
Fenwick became the Bishop of Boston in 1825, during a period of rapid growth of the city's Catholic population due to massive Irish immigration.
At the same time, Catholics faced intense nativism and anti-Catholicism, culminating in the burning of the Ursuline Convent in 1834, threats against Fenwick's life, and the formation of the Montgomery Guards.
Fenwick also addressed parochial conflict, ultimately placing a Boston church under interdict.He established churches, schools, charitable institutions, and newspapers throughout the diocese, which encompassed all of New England.
Among these were The Pilot newspaper and the College of the Holy Cross.
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