Peter Richard Kenrick (August 17, 1806 – March 4, 1896) was Bishop of St. Louis, Missouri, and the first

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

west of the

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Early life and ordination

Peter Richard Kenrick was born in Dublin on August 17, 1806. He was educated at

Maynooth College St Patrick's Pontifical University, Maynooth ( ga, Coláiste Naoimh Phádraig, Maigh Nuad), is the "National Seminary for Ireland" (a Roman Catholic college), and a pontifical university, located in the town of Maynooth, from Dublin, Ireland. ...

, and ordained to the priesthood in 1832 by Archbishop Murray of Dublin. Prior to entering the seminary he worked with and befriended

James Clarence Mangan James Clarence Mangan, born James Mangan ( ga, Séamus Ó Mangáin; 1 May 1803, Dublin – 20 June 1849), was an Irish poet. He freely translated works from German, Turkish, Persian, Arabic, and Irish, with his translations of Goethe gaining sp ...

the poet.O'Shea, J.J. (1910)
"Francis Patrick and Peter Richard Kenrick"
In ''The Catholic Encyclopedia''. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved May 1, 2022 from New Advent. The year following his ordination he travelled with his brother,

Francis Kenrick Francis Patrick Kenrick (December 3, 1796 or 1797 – July 8, 1863) was an Irish-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as the third Bishop of the Diocese of Philadelphia (1842–1851) and the sixth Archbishop of the Archdiocese of ...

, who eventually became the Bishop of Philadelphia and later the

Archbishop of Baltimore The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Baltimore ( la, link=no, Archidiœcesis Baltimorensis) is the premier (or first) see of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in the United States. The archdiocese comprises the City of Baltimore and nine of Mar ...

. In his early years as a priest in Philadelphia, Father Kenrick wrote several works relating to Catholic theology and

church history __NOTOC__ Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception. Henry Melvill Gwatkin defined church history as "the spiritual ...

. One of his works, ''Validity of Anglican Ordinations examined'', published in 1841, was not challenged for over a century. He held a number of posts in the Philadelphia church, until he was appointed coadjutor bishop of

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

in 1841. At the time, the diocese included the entire area of the

Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase (french: Vente de la Louisiane, translation=Sale of Louisiana) was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or app ...

, except for

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, and

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 ...

. In 1847, when the diocese became an archdiocese, he became the first archbishop of the newly created archdiocese. The city itself would grow almost thirtyfold over the term of his residency.

Bishop

During his tenure in St. Louis, he visited many parts of the state of

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

and actively encouraged the development of Catholicism and Catholic institutions in his diocese. He started a Catholic journal, opened a seminary in the then-independent city of

Carondelet, Missouri Carondelet is a neighborhood in the extreme southeastern portion of St. Louis, Missouri. It was incorporated as an independent city in 1851 and was annexed by the City of St. Louis in 1870. As of the 2000 Census, the neighborhood has a popula ...

, and invited a number of

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religious institutes to work in the diocese. During the period of the

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and its aftermath, Kenrick maintained a neutral position in a city and state whose residents were of widely divergent opinions on the matter. After the war ended, he urged the priests in his diocese to refuse to take the ironclad oath which was intended to ensure that no person who had supported the

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position would ever achieve a position of influence, and supported those who did so. One of these priests, the Reverend John A. Cummings, filed the case which the

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heard and prompted them to rule the ironclad oath

unconstitutional Constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applicable constitution. When l ...

. He took part in the second Plenary Council of Baltimore, where he advocated that the affairs of the Catholic Church in the United States be handled locally wherever possible. This position earned him a number of detractors and opponents. During the

First Vatican Council The First Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the First Vatican Council or Vatican I was convoked by Pope Pius IX on 29 June 1868, after a period of planning and preparation that began on 6 December 1864. This, the twentieth ecu ...

, he opposed the centralization of church authority in Rome and did not support the declaration of the

dogma Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Islam ...

Papal infallibility Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that, in virtue of the promise of Jesus to Peter, the Pope when he speaks ''ex cathedra'' is preserved from the possibility of error on doctrine "initially given to the aposto ...

. When it was defined dogmatically, he accepted the opinion of the majority. His failure to support this issue increased the number and prominence of his detractors.

Later life

After harassment by his detractors and members of the

curia Curia (Latin plural curiae) in ancient Rome referred to one of the original groupings of the citizenry, eventually numbering 30, and later every Roman citizen was presumed to belong to one. While they originally likely had wider powers, they came ...

made life difficult for him, he turned over the administration of the archdiocese to his coadjutor bishop,

Patrick John Ryan Patrick John Ryan (February 20, 1831 – February 11, 1911) was an Irish-born prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as the second Archbishop of Philadelphia from 1884 until his death in 1911. Early life and education Patrick Ryan was born in T ...

, in 1871. Upon Ryan being made the Archbishop of Philadelphia, the diocese which Kenrick's brother had previously headed, Kenrick took back active administration of his diocese. During the period when the

Knights of Labor Knights of Labor (K of L), officially Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, was an American labor federation active in the late 19th century, especially the 1880s. It operated in the United States as well in Canada, and had chapters also ...

, a strongly Roman Catholic labor union and the first national labor union, turned to violence, Kenrick vocally opposed them and condemned their actions. However, the higher-ranking Cardinal

James Gibbons James Cardinal Gibbons (July 23, 1834 – March 24, 1921) was a senior-ranking American prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Apostolic Vicar of North Carolina from 1868 to 1872, Bishop of Richmond from 1872 to 1877, and as ninth ...

, the

, overruled his objections. In 1893, Kenrick's attempt to name his coadjutor bishop failed when his nominee did not win the support of his fellow bishops.

John Joseph Kain John Joseph Kain (May 31, 1841 – October 13, 1903) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling in West Virginia from 1875 to 1893 and as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis from ...

was appointed to fill the role instead. His conflicts and failed communication with Kain lent a note of discord to his final years. In 1896, he was canonically deposed by Pope

Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII ( it, Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was the head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the second-old ...

because of physical incapacitation due to infirmity. He died on March 4, 1896, and is buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, which is a cemetery Kenrick had himself established on a farm he bought. The seminary of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, formerly known as Kenrick Theological Seminary, is named in his honor.

References

External links

* * *Christensen, Lawrence O., et al., ''Dictionary of Missouri Biography''. Columbia, MO and London:University of Missouri Press, 1999. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kenrick, Peter Richard 1806 births 1896 deaths 19th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the United States American Roman Catholic clergy of Irish descent Roman Catholic archbishops of St. Louis Irish emigrants to the United States (before 1923) Alumni of St Patrick's College, Maynooth Christian clergy from Dublin (city) Clergy from Philadelphia Clergy from St. Louis Irish Roman Catholic missionaries 19th-century American Roman Catholic theologians Burials at Calvary Cemetery (St. Louis) Roman Catholic missionaries in the United States