GIBBONS, James, Cardinal, American Roman Cathotc prelate: b. Baltimore, Md., 23 July 1834. When very young he was taken by his father to Ireland to be educated. He re turned to America in 1853 and resided in New Orleans until 1855, when he matriculated at Saint Charles College, near Ellicott City, Md., where he was graduated with distinction in 1857. He then pursued his theological course at the Seminary of Saint Sulpice and at Saint Mary's University, Baltimore. On 30 June 1861 he was ordained a priest, his first mission being at Saint Patrick's Church, Baltimore, where he was assistant. Transferred to Saint Bridget's Church, Canton, he ministered to a small congregation until 1865, when Archbishop Spalding made him chancellor of the archdiocese and his private secretary. The Second Plenary Council at Baltimore, 1866, made him its assist ant chancellor, and in August 1868 he was con secrated titular bishop of Adramyttum in partibus infidelium and first vicar-apostolic of North Carolina, erected by bull of His Holiness, Pius IX, dated 3 March 1868. He found three churches, two priests and about 1,000 Roman Catholics scattered over the entire State. He opened a school, which he personally con ducted; built six churches; introduced into the vicariate the Benedictine order at Belmont, Gas ton County. where Mary Help abbey was later erected; established the Sisters of Mercy and built for them a school for whites and one for negroes in Wilmington. He made the personal acquaintance of every adult Roman Catholic in the State, and met them at their homes, traveling from the seaside to the mountains, up and down the State, and that none should be neglected. After four years he was translated to the see of Richmond in 1872. Here he erected five churches, Saint Peter's Academy in charge of the Xaverian Brothers, and Saint Sophie's Home for Old People in charge of the Little Sisters of the Poor, in Richmond, Va., and parochial schools in Petersburg and Portsmouth, Va., and enlarged Saint Joseph's Female Orphan Asylum, Richmond, Va. In 1877 Archbishop Bayley asked to have Bishop Gibbons appointed his coadjutor, and on the death of Archbishop Bayley in October of that year Bishop Gibbons became archbishop of Baltimore, the highest ecclesiastical dignity of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. He headed the delegation of American prelates who visited Rome in 1883 to represent the affairs of the Church in the United States at the Vati can, and to outline the work of the Third Plen ary Council to meet in 1884. Pope Leo XIII ap
pointed Archbishop Gibbons to preside over the council. In directing the proceedings of the council he co-operated in the enactment of many important new decrees, made necessary by the progress and development of Catholicism in America; and these acts and decrees were, after mature deliberation, approved by the ecclesiastical authorities. Leo XIII expressed his approval of the action and course of Arch bishop Gibbons and created him cardinal 7 June 1886, and on 30 June 1886 Archbishop Kenrick Of Saint Louis, representing the Pope, be.
stowed the insignia of his office upon the newly-made cardinal. Cardinal Gibbons sailed for Europe the next year to receive the apostolic benediction and to be admitted to membership in the college of cardinals, the 25th in succes sion. While in Rome he interpreted to the Pope the democratic spirit of American Catholicism in respect to the labor organizations in the United States and the exact relation existing between the employers and the employed. He was installed as pastor of his titular church 25 March 1887, and was assigned to the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, a church of great antiquity, on the Tiber. He returned to Amer ica In November 1887; on 24 May 1888 laid the cornerstone of the Catholic University, Washington, D. C., and dedicated the divinity building 13 Nov. 1889. Cardinal Gibbons has been chancellor of the university since its foun dation. In November 18E8 he celebrated at Baltimore the centenary of the founding of the Catholic hierarchy in the United States, sub sequently convening a congress of Catholic laymen, the first ever held in the United States. Cardinal Gibbons is president of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, and is the first Ameri can cardinal to take part in the election of a pope. A model churchman, he is also a typical American citizen, loyal, progressive and public spirited. On 20 Oct. 1918 his golden jubilee, commemorating an episcopate of half a cen tury, the first American prelate to complete 50 years as a bishop, was celebrated with a special message from Pope Benedict XV, testi monials, congratulations, the attendance of dele gations from all parts, including commissions from Italy, France and Great Bntain. He has published The Faith of Our Fathers' (1876; 58th ed. 1903) ; Our Christian Heritage' (1889); The Ambassador of Christ' (1896), etc.