John Bernard Fitzpatrick

John Bernard Fitzpatrick (November 1, 1812 – February 13, 1866) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Boston from 1846 until his death in 1866.

Biography

Early life John Fitzpatrick was born on November 1, 1812, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Bernard and Eleanor Flinn. A tailor, Bernard Flinn had emigrated in 1805 to the United States with his family from King's County in Ireland. John Fitzpatrick's maternal grandfather served in a Massachusetts regiment during the American Revolution. As a young child, he served as an altar boy and attended the local primary schools.

At the suggestion of Bishop Benedict Fenwick, Fitzpatrick then enrolled at the Petit Seminaire, run by the Sulpician Fathers, in Montreal, Quebec. He also became fluent in Latin, Greek, and French by this time. After Fitzpatrick returned to Boston in November 1840, the diocese assigned him as a curate at Holy Cross Cathedral in Boston and St. Mary's Parish in the North End of the city. He also attended the Sixth Provincial Council of Baltimore in 1846 in Fenwick's absence. In June 1855, Fitzpatrick appointed Reverend James Augustine Healy, the first African-American to be ordained a priest, as the first chancellor of the Diocese of Boston.

During the American Civil War, Fitzpatrick supported President Abraham Lincoln and the Union cause, providing Catholic chaplains for the heavily Irish Massachusetts regiments. He visited Belgium in 1862 for what he claimed as health reasons; however, others (including the American diplomats Ambrose Dudley Mann and Henry Shelton Sanford) believed he was working for the Union cause in Europe. The diocesan newspaper declared, "Boston participates in the joy that pervades the whole country" when General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate States Army to Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant of the Union Army on April 9, 1865 at the Appomattox Court House in Appomattox, Virginia.

Death and legacy During his 20-year tenure, Fitzpatrick raised the number of both priests and parishes from 40 to 300; established an orphanage, hospital, college; and increased the number of religious communities fivefold. After his health began to fail, he received John Joseph Williams as his coadjutor.

Fitzpatrick died in Boston on February 13, 1866 at age 53.