Rudolph de Landas Berghes

Ordination name = denomination = Old Catholic ordained deacon by = date of diaconal ordination = place of diaconal ordination= ordained priest by = Arnold Mathew date of priestly ordination = November 21, 1912 place of priestly ordination=Bedford Park, London consecrated by = Arnold Mathew co-consecrators = date of consecration = June 29, 1913

In Europe Berghes was born in Naples, Kingdom of Italy, the "son of Count de Landas Bourgogne de Rache and Adelaide M. de Gramont-Hamilton, and belonged to the noble family of De Berghes-Saint-Winoc." (Anson wrote only that, "It was well known that he [Berghes] was related to most royal and noble families included in the Almanach de Gotha" but Anson did not mention that Berghes himself was not found in any edition of that work.) and, months after Berghes' consecration, according to Peter-Ben Smit, in Old Catholic and Philippine Independent Ecclesiologies in History, "ties of the with Mathew were formally severed." When, according to Anson, "they issued a formal statement that [...] Mathew had ceased to be an Old Catholic on December 29, 1910, and that after that date they recognized none of his episcopal actions." Cunliffe-Owen incorrectly stated he arrived in 1912, while Anson cited 1914. but without Mathew's authorization, It was reported on a society page a few days later that Berghes "is to be assigned as rector" of a parish in New York City and that Greer "announce that the appointment will be made."

After Hulse's consecration, newspapers questioned Berghes' true identity and so did bishops. Allegations about his background were printed in newspapers. William Wolkovich-Valkavicius called Mickiewicz, in Polish American Studies, a "major figure in the Lithuanian separatist movement." Mickiewicz was pastor of the independent Lithuanian parish in Scranton, Pennsylvania started by the dissidents. However, "because of his unsavory conduct," Mickiewicz "was charged with breach of discipline and left of his own accord rather than face expulsion." (Within a year, in 1920, Brown self published Communism and Christianism.) This book, according to John Kyser, in Louisiana History, was "perhaps one of the most amazing and bizarre ever written by a modern Christian bishop." Brown resigned later that year.

On November 22, 1919, he abandoned Old Catholicism and took a solemn vow of abjuration at the hands of Patrick Joseph Hayes, Archbishop of New York, in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York. He was buried in the monastery's cemetery.

He made "the claim," according to his obituary, "that through his efforts the American branch of the Old Catholics number[ed] in 1920 about 120,000 in Canada and the United States."

In 1947, Brandreth called him "Prince de Landas Berghes et de Rache" in Episcopi Vagantes and the Anglican Church. In 1964, Anson called him "Rudolph Francis Edward St Patrick Alphonsus Ghislain de Gramont Hamilton de Lorraine-Brabant, Prince de Landas Berghes et de Rache, Duc de St Winock" in Bishops at Large.