Thomas Francis Hendricken

Thomas Francis Hendricken (May 5, 1827 – June 11, 1886) was an Irish-born American Catholic prelate who served as the first bishop of Providence in Rhode Island from 1872 until his death in 1886. Hendricken started the construction of the current Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral.

Biography

Early life Thomas Hendricken was born on May 5, 1827, in Kilkenny, Ireland, the third child of John and Anne Meagher Hendricken. His father was a farmer; his paternal grandfather was a German soldier who fought at the 1690 Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. After John Hendricken died in 1835, his brother helped Thomas Hendricken fund his education. Hendricken later boarded the steamer Columbia sailing to the New York City. The American ship captain belonged to the Know Nothing Party, a virulently anti-Catholic movement in the United States. During the voyage, he prohibited Hendricken from acting as a priest or wearing priestly garb. However, Hendricken disobeyed him by entering the steerage area to administer the last rites to a dying woman. When the captain heard about this, he declared "The papist shall never see New York alive." Davies then tended to Hendricken's wounds and guarded him until the Columbia reached New York City in July 1853. Davies became a lifelong friend of Hendricken, who would later aid him in his charitable projects. His sister Catherine and brother William later joined him in Waterbury. Hendricken also purchased land to create St. Joseph's Cemetery in West Warwick, Rhode Island.

In 1868, Hendricken traveled by train with 16 year-old Michael J. McGivney, a parishioner at Immaculate Conception, to Saint Hyacinth, Quebec. Hendricken had influenced McGivney to become a priest and he was now entering the Séminaire de Saint-Hyacinthe. McGivney was later ordained and founded the Knights of Columbus in 1882; he was beatified by the Vatican in 2020.

Death and legacy

Thomas Hendricken died at his episcopal residence in Providence on June 11, 1886, at age 59. The archdiocese opened the unfinished cathedral for his funeral service and he was entombed in a crypt beneath the high altar. The Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul was finally consecrated in 1889.

During the renovations of Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in 2006, the diocese removed the basement crypt and re-interred the bishops' remains in a mausoleum at a diocesan cemetery. In December 2006, during a reinterment ceremony, six students from Bishop Hendricken High School carried a casket holding Hendricken's remains into the cathedral. The remain are now interred in a sarcophagus facing the high altar.