Leo Hale Taylor, SMA was an American-born priest of the Catholic Church and member of the

Society of African Missions The Society of African Missions ( la, Societas Missionum ad Afros; ) abbreviated SMA, also known as the SMA Fathers, is a Catholic religious Society of Apostolic Life of pontifical right for men founded by Melchior de Marion Brésillac in 1856. ...

. He was Archbishop of Lagos from 1939 to 1965. Taylor was the first principal of

St Gregory's College, Lagos St. Gregory's College, Lagos, is a catholic missionary school for boys, with boarding facilities, located 1.0 km from Tafawa Balewa Square in the vicinity of Ikoyi – Obalende, Lagos State, Nigeria. History The college, originally a coed ca ...

and as bishop, he was considered a pillar of support for the school.

Life

Taylor was born in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

to parents of English and Irish background. Educated at St Joseph's College,

Wilton, Cork Wilton is a suburb of Cork City. It is the site of Cork University Hospital, Cork's largest hospital. Other landmarks include Wilton Shopping Centre and St. Finbarr's Cemetery, which lies on the border between Wilton and Glasheen and is the re ...

city, he was ordained a priest on June 23, 1914. Taylor was among the first group of trainee missionaries to attended SMA's seminary in Cork, Ireland. He was lifelong friends with Father

Michael O'Flanagan Michael O'Flanagan ( ga, Mícheál Ó Flannagáin; 13 August 1876 – 7 August 1942) was a Roman Catholic priest, Irish language scholar, inventor and historian. He was a popular, socialist Irish republican; "a vice-president of the Irish Ag ...

, a nationalist sympathizer, a relationship that must have provoked nationalistic sentiments in Taylor. As founder of African Missionary, an SMA monthly newsletter, his writings were sympathetic to the nationalist cause. His first missionary appointment was as a staff of the Vicariate of the Bight of Benin's Holy Cross Primary School in Lagos. He served at the school from 1920 to 1924, he then moved to Ibadan to serve as a teacher at St Theresa's Minor Seminary. When St Gregory's College Lagos became a full fledged college, Taylor was appointed its first principal. In February 1934, upon the death of the Irish Bishop of Western Nigeria, Taylor was nominated to succeed him. After the death of Bishop O'Rourke in Lagos, Taylor was brought back to Lagos as the new bishop.

Archbishop

At the beginning of his tenure, the

Abeokuta Abeokuta is the capital city of Ogun State in southwest Nigeria. It is situated on the east bank of the Ogun River, near a group of rocky outcrops in a wooded savanna; north of Lagos by railway, or by water. , Abeokuta and the surrounding are ...

, Oyo and Ibadan Diocese was within the Archdiocese of Lagos. Taylor had the zeal of the early missionaries in West Africa, he spoke Yoruba and was known to sometimes correct the Yoruba interpreter. He was also an avid cyclist and frequently traveled to out stations by road or forest path to practice the sacrament of confirmation or administer to a dying baptized catholic. To progress the mission of the church in Lagos and to close a gap in the need for elementary school teachers, Taylor established a teachers training school, Blessed Murumba's College at Ile-Ife in 1944. In 1943, he founded the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus Sisters at Ibonwon, an institution that practiced chastity and vows to poverty. In 1951, Taylor accepted a request from Dominican fathers to manage a new parish in Yaba. The fathers came from St Alberts Province in Chicago. The Parish is now called St Dominic's Parish, Yaba. He died in 1965.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Leo Hale 19th-century births 1965 deaths Roman Catholic archbishops of Lagos American emigrants to Nigeria People from Minnesota American people of English descent American people of Irish descent Educators from Ibadan Educators from Lagos 20th-century Nigerian educators Founders of Nigerian schools and colleges Roman Catholic missionaries in Nigeria 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Nigeria Roman Catholic bishops of Benin City 20th-century American Roman Catholic priests Society of African Missions