John Carroll
Leonard Neale
Ambrose Maréchal
James Whitfield
Samuel Eccleston
Francis Kenrick
Martin Spalding
James Bayley
James Gibbons
Michael Curley
Francis Keough
Lawrence Shehan
William Borders
Current Shepherd:
Cardinal Keeler

Archbishops of Baltimore

	John Carroll (1789-1815) Born in 1735 at Upper Marlboro, near the geographic center of Maryland, John Carroll belonged to the illustrious family whose name is enshrined in both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Sailing for European studies at the age of thirteen, he was not to return for 27 years. In the meantime he joined the Society of Jesus, was ordained, and taught for several years before the temporary suppression of the society. Arriving back in Maryland on the eve of iie Revolution, he was appointed to accompany a special embassy to Canada from the Continental Congress. After five years as superior of the American missions (1784-1789), Carroll was named the first American bishop. In 1808, upon the division of his vast diocese, he became the country's first archbishop. He founded the nation's first seminary (St. Mary's), and its first Catholic college (Georgetown), and broke ground for its first Cathedral. Under his patronage also Mother Seton began her life's work at Emmitsburg. more on him at the archdiocesan site
	Leonard Neale (1815-1817) A descendant of one of Maryland's oldest families, Leonard Neale was born at Port Tobacco on October 15, 1746. Like his four priest-brothers, he went abroad for European studies at an early age, and there joined the Society of Jesus. Before returning to Maryland in 1783, he did teaching work in Belgium, pastoral work in England and missionary work in British Guiana. In 1793 Bishop Carroll named him pastor of St. Mary's Church in Philadelphia, where he eventually contracted yellow fever. In 1799 Neale went to Washington as the fourth president of Georgetown College. The following year, at the first episcopal consecration in the United States, he was made coadjutor bishop of Baltimore. In 1815 he became the second archbishop of Baltimore, but died less than two years later. He is buried in the chapel of Georgetown's Visitation Convent whose establishment was one of the great projects of his life.
	Ambrose Maréchal (1817-1828) Born in France in 1764, Ambrose Maréchal studied law before entering the seminary and joining the Sulpicians. Sailing from his turbulent native land on the day of his ordination, he arrived in Baltimore in 1792, celebrating his first Mass here. After mission work in southern Maryland and on the Eastern Shore, he taught at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, and at Georgetown. His Sulpician superiors recalled him to France in 1803, and there he continued teaching theology in several seminaries. In 1812 he returned to St. Mary's. Though he declined his nomination as bishop of Philadelphia, he was later persuaded to accept consecration as third archbishop of Baltimore. In 1821 he presided at the dedication of the future Basilica, leaving shortly thereafter for the first ad limina visit to Rome undertaken by a Baltimore archbishop. Difficulties with schismatic parishes in Norfolk and Charleston added to the many burdens of which death relieved him on January 29, 1828.

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