PURCELL, John Baptist, American Ro man Catholic archbishop: b. Mallow, County Cork, Ireland, 26 Feb. 1800; d. Brown County, Ohio, 4 July 1883. He came to the United States in l818, was educated at Mount Saint Mary's College, Emmitsburg, Md., received minor or ders, and later studied at Saint Sulpician's Col lege in Paris. He was ordained in 1826 and in 1827 appointed to the chair of philosophy in Marys Saint Ma's College, of which he becamepresi dent in 1828. In 1833 he was consecrated bishop Of Cincinnati, and at once set about the itri provement of the diocese finder his charge, and in 1846 the number of churches under his con trol had increased from 12 to 70, the number of Roman Catholics from 6,000 to 70,000. He founded schools and academies, built a convent for the Ursulines, and in 1847 the diocese of Cleveland was formed out of that of Cincinnati at his request and placed in charge of another prelate. In 1850 be was made an archbishop and in 1851 received the gallium from the Pope's own hands. He founded Mount Saint Mary's of the West, destined to become one of the leading theological seminaries of the country, and in 1855 presided over his first provincial council. New sees were formed from his dio cese in 1868, but though their creation had limited his diocese in extent, it still contained 140,000 Roman Catholics. He attended the
Vatican Council in 1869 and celebrated his golden jubilee with great rejoicing among his people in 1876. In 1879, however, his hitherto unbroken prosperity was interrupted. His brother Edward had been appointed his vicar general and the financial affairs of the diocese had been left by the bishop entirely in his brother's care, trusting implicitly in the latter's financial ability, which was unfortunately as little as the bishop's own. When the crash, rendered inevitable by faulty business methods, came, Edward died broken-hearted. The in debtedness reached nearly $4,000,000, and the crisis came at a time of general financial panic. The bishop, however, was never accused of any dishonesty, though the unwisdom of his con fidence in his brother was widely criticised. His own light regard for the value of money was well known, as he had served as bishop for 25 years before he accepted even the (cathedrati-, cue) of $5,000 a year, and when paid it usu ally was given away before night. He tendered his resignation in 1880, bu't it was not accepted though he was given a coadjutor. At his death the Roman Catholics in his original diocese numbered half a million. He published a series of textbooks for the use of Roman Catholic schools in his diocese.