Samuel Eccleston

Samuel Eccleston (June 27, 1801 – April 22, 1851) was an American Catholic prelate who served as archbishop of Baltimore from 1834 until his death in 1851. He was a member of the Sulpicians.

A convert to Catholicism as a young man, Eccleston attended St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, was ordained to the priesthood and then entered the Sulpician Order. After attending seminary in France, he served as a teacher and later president of St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore. Eccleston was named Coadjutor Archbishop of Baltimore by the Vatican and then became Archbishop of Baltimore.

Eccleston is known for inviting several men's and women's Catholic religious orders into the archdiocese to establish seminaries, schools, and parishes for the rapidly expanding Catholic population. In recent years, he has been criticized for his efforts to disband an African-American religious community in the archdiocese.

Biography

Early life and education Samuel Eccleston was born on June 27, 1801, near Chestertown, Maryland, to Samuel and Martha (née Hyson) Eccleston. His father, who had three children from a previous marriage, was an Episcopalian clergyman. After Samuel Eccleston Sr died, Martha Eccleston married a Catholic man.

The family sent Samuel Eccleston to St. Mary's College in Baltimore, which was staffed by priests from the Sulpician Order. Inspired by how one of his teachers at St. Mary's faced death, Eccleston entered the Catholic Church on May 29, 1819. Despite vigorous protests from his family and friends, Eccleston decided to enter the priesthood, enrolling at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore in July 1819. After visiting England and Ireland, Eccleston returned to Baltimore in July 1827. The Sulpicians then assigned him as a faculty member and vice president of St. Mary's Seminary. Two years later they named him president of the seminary. The Brothers of St. Patrick came to the archdiocese in 1846 to direct a trade school near Baltimore, and the Redemptorists cared particularly for German-speaking immigrants.

Eccleston contacted the Brothers of the Christian Schools in Canada, asking them to start a Catholic boys school in Baltimore. They sent several monks there to found Calvert Hall School, the first Christian Brothers school in the United States. It opened in 1845 in the parish hall of the former St. Peter's Pro-Cathedral in Baltimore. In 1846, Eccleston requested that the Brothers of Saint Patrick take over the Baltimore Manual Labor School for indigent boys.

In 1848, the Sulpician Order opened St. Charles College, a minor seminary for those studying for the priesthood, in Howard County, Maryland. The order established Mount de Sales Academy in Catonsville, Maryland in 1852.

In contrast to his support for other religious orders, Eccleston provided little support for the Oblate Sisters of Providence, a religious community of African American women supervised by the Sulpician Order. When the Oblate spiritual director died in 1841, Eccleston refused to replace him. Over the following years, Eccleston and other diocesan officials rarely visited the order. Feeling neglected by the Sulpicians and Eccleston, many of the sisters turned to the Redemptorist Order for spiritual support. The Redemptorists had come to the archdiocese primarily to set up German-language parishes for German immigrants. On October 7, 1847, Eccleston decided to disband the Oblates. Two days later, the Redemptorist priest Thaddeus Anwander, at the encouragement of his superiors, begged Eccleston to appoint him as the Oblates spiritual adviser. He finally gave in and gave Anwander the position.

Between 1837 and 1849, Eccleston held five Provincial Councils of Baltimore. He invited Pope Pius IX, who had been forced to flee Rome by revolutionaries in 1848, to preside over the Seventh Provincial Council in 1849.

Death and legacy Eccleston died on April 22, 1851, in Washington at age 49. He is buried in the crypt of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of Mary in Baltimore.