Rt. Rev. George Michael Lenihan OSB (11 September 1858 – 10 February 1910) was fifth Catholic Bishop of

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

(1896–1910).

Early life

Lenihan was born in 1858 in London to Irish parents who died while he was a child. Aged 14, he entered the Benedictine College at

St Augustine's Abbey St Augustine's Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Canterbury, Kent, England. The abbey was founded in 598 and functioned as a monastery until its dissolution in 1538 during the English Reformation. After the abbey's dissolution, it underwent ...

Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2001 it had a population of about 40,000. In 2011, according to t ...

under the Abbot Alcock whose associate was Father Edmund Luck. After four years there he went to

St Edmund's College, Ware St Edmund's College is a coeducational independent day and boarding school in the British public school tradition, set in in Ware, Hertfordshire. Founded in 1568 as a seminary, then a boys' school, it is the oldest continuously operating and ...

to study for the priesthood for the

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Archdiocese. He then studied philosophy and theology at the English College at

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. In 1882 when he was

sub-deacon Subdeacon (or sub-deacon) is a minor order or ministry for men in various branches of Christianity. The subdeacon has a specific liturgical role and is placed between the acolyte (or reader) and the deacon in the order of precedence. Subdeacons in ...

, he was invited to accompany Bishop Luck to New Zealand and on 27 August 1882 he was ordained a priest, " ... being the first student of the Ramsgate College to be ordained to the

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

priesthood".G H Scholefield (ed), ''A Dictionary of New Zealand Biography'', "Lenihan, George Michael", Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, 1940, Vol 1, pp. 493, 494

Priesthood in Auckland

When he arrived in Auckland in 1882, Lenihan was appointed as curate to

Monsignor Monsignor (; it, monsignore ) is an honorific form of address or title for certain male clergy members, usually members of the Roman Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" ca ...

Walter McDonald at

St Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland The Cathedral of St Patrick and St Joseph (usually known as St Patrick's Cathedral) is a Catholic church in Auckland CBD, situated on the corner of Federal Street and Wyndham St. It is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Auckland a ...

where he remained for more than three years. In 1886, he was appointed pastor of Ponsonby, which he found without either church or presbytery. A new church for Ponsonby was blessed six months later, and opened within the year. Lenihan was also entrusted with the charge of the Star of the Sea Orphanage at St Mary's. In 1891 he was appointed as "irremovable rector" of Parnell.

Bishop of Auckland

In 1895 Lenihan was appointed

Coadjutor bishop A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) is a bishop in the Catholic, Anglican, and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in the administration of the diocese. The coadjutor (literally, "co ...

to Bishop Luck, on whose death (early in 1896) he succeeded as

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and was consecrated a bishop on 15 November 1896 at the relatively young age of 38. In 1899 Lenihan visited Rome and Ireland and secured more priests for the diocese. He opened

Sacred Heart College, Auckland , motto_translation = Take Courage And Act Manfully , type = State-integrated Day & boarding Secondary school , religion = Roman Catholic Marist , gender = Boys-only , patr ...

in 1903 and in 1905 undertook the completion of

. This was accomplished in 1907, the complete building being dedicated in 1908 by Cardinal Moran, Archbishop of

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. Lenihan again visited Europe and North America in 1908 when he attended the celebration of the

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Pope Pius X Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of C ...

and the Eucharistic Congress in London. Bishop Lenihan died on 23 February 1910 in

, Australia.

References

Sources

* E.R. Simmons, ''A Brief History of the Catholic Church in New Zealand'', Catholic Publication Centre, Auckland, 1978. * E.R. Simmons, ''In Cruce Salus, A History of the Diocese of Auckland 1848 - 1980'', Catholic Publication Centre, Auckland 1982.

External links

''Bishop George Michael Lenihan OSB'', Catholic Hierarchy website
(retrieved 12 February 2011) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lenihan, George 1858 births 1910 deaths New Zealand people of Irish descent Roman Catholic bishops of Auckland New Zealand Benedictines Roman Catholic clergy from London Benedictine bishops 19th-century Roman Catholic bishops in New Zealand 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in New Zealand People educated at St Edmund's College, Ware