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Archbishops
of Baltimore

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
Cardinal Keeler

Current Shepherd:
Edwin O’Brien

Archbishops of Baltimore

	James Whitfield (1828-1834) The memory of Baltimore's fourth archbishop is perpetuated in the city parish which bears his Christian name and whose original church was built out of his private fortune-St. James (1833). Born in Liverpool, England, in 1770, the future prelate belonged to a mercantile family. While traveling in Napoleonic France, he was detained as an English subject. Here he met the Abb6 Mar6chal and decided to enter the seminary. Ordained in 1809, he later returned to England and devoted himself to parish work. At the urging of his Sulpician friend, now archbishop of Baltimore, James Whitfield came to Baltimore and took up residence at old St. Peter's rectory. Eleven years later he succeeded his friend as archbishop. Highlights of his administration were the First and Second Provincial Councils of Baltimore (1829, 1833) and the opening of the Cathedral rectory (1830).
	Samuel Eccleston (1834-1851) On October 19, 1834, Samuel Eccleston became at 33 the youngest archbishop in the history of Baltimore. Born near Chestertown, Maryland, he attended Baltimore's St. Mary's College, a lay department of St. Mary's Seminary, and while there decided to become a Catholic and a priest as well. joining the Sulpicians, he spent two years after ordination at their headquarters outside of Paris. Returning to Baltimore in 1827, he became, in quick succession, vice-president of St. Mary's College, its president, coadjutor and successor of Archbishop Whitfield. During his rule, five provincial councils were held, and St. Charles' Minor Seminary was founded.
	Francis Patrick Kenrick (1851-1863) Born in Dublin in 1797, Francis Patrick Kenrick made his clerical studies in Rome, and then volunteered for service in Kentucky. Here he taught theology in St. Thomas Seminary. The First Provincial Council of Baltimore (1829), of which he was secretary, nominated him as the coadjutor bishop of the strife-ridden Diocese of Philadelphia. During his years of gentle command, the diocese suffered violent storms of bigotry; in 1844 several churches were even burned or attacked, and many of his flock were killed. Succeeding Archbishop Eccleston in Baltimore, he convoked the First Plenary Council to which he himself was Apostolic Delegate. Scripture scholar, accomplished author, and master of half a dozen languages, he was a theologian without peer in the American Church. Partly through his efforts the North American College was founded in Rome in 1859. Dying shortly after the battle of Gettysburg, he was survived for thirty years by his brother Peter, first archbishop of St. Louis.
	Martin John Spalding (1864-1872) A Kentuckian of Maryland ancestry, Martin John Spalding was born at Bardstown in 1810. He gave quick witness to his mental gifts, entering the Bardstown seminary at an early age, while Francis Kenrick still taught there. Like the latter he completed his clerical studies in the Eternal City and was there ordained (1834). Returning to Kentucky he eventually became the second bishop of Louisville. In the midst of the Civil War he succeeded Archbishop Kenrick at Baltimore. He presided over the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore (1866) and played a prominent role at the Vatican Council (1869-70). He died in his see city on February 2, 1872. See more at the Archdiocesan website

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