The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1884-08-07
Bishop John Ireland.

Rishop John Ireland, by right of succession,
is now Bishop of Minnesota, owing to the re-
tirement of Bishop Thomas l. Grace.
The following announcement was made on
the first day of August:
To the Clergy and Laity of the Diocese of St
Paul:
Owing to our advanced age and increasing
infrmities we have found the duties of the
episcopal Office SO very onerous that we seri-
ouslv for sometime past entertained the
thought of asking the supreme pontiff to be
relieved of them The sense of our inability
longer to fulfil these duties in manner salts
factory to oursef or as efficiently as they
might be discharged, was no small addition to
the cares and anxieties necessarily attendant
upon the administration of the diocese The
growth of the diocese and the large increase of
the number of priests, churches and institu-
tons, has added proportionately to the weight
of the burden, while our ability to bear it has
grown less with failing health and increasing
years. These reasons presented in earnest
prayer to the holy father have moved him to
graciously grant our petition. Rt Rev. Bishop
Ireland, under his appointment as our coadju-
ter, succeeds to the title and Office with its in
cumbent duties of bishop of st Paul He en-
tiers upon the Office not stranger in thu do
cese, but fully acquainted with the condition
OF lUS audlTS. Lie OSep lOF0 we nave 1OT Iu6
diocese, for its clergy and people, which has
strengthened with years, gives, indeed, poig-
nancy to the separation, but we are consoled
in the assurance that in Rt Rev. Bishop Ireland
clergy and people have one whose affection for
them is as our own, and that with his well
known piety, zeal, energy and abilities, the do
cese will be all the more prosperous under his
administration. THOMAS l. GRACE
BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE.
Bishop Ireland, who succeeds Bishop Grace,
is widely known as one of the most jealous and
eloquent bishops in the Catholic hierarchy in
America. He was born at Burnchurch, County
Kilkenny, Ireland, on the 18th of September,
1888, and is consequently in his forty sixth
year. His parents, both of whom are now hv-
ing in St Paul, came to America when he was
eleven years of age, and after three years
residence at Chicago, the family moved to St
Paul, where the bishops father Richard Ire
land, engaged in business as builder and con-
school at ''Salnt Mary's of the Lake" Shortly
after his arrival in this city he entered the Ca
thedral parish school on Wabasha street, and
his aptitude and diligence attracted the atten-
tion of Bishop Cretin, who, in 1858, sent him,
in company with Rev. 7. O'Gorman, now pas
tor of the Immaculate Conception church, Fari-
bault, to Meximeux, Ain, France, under the
care of Rev. Father Ravoux, at present the
vicar general of this diocese. The bishop and
Father o Gorman were thus the first two ecclesi-
astical students from Minnesota. At Mexi-
meux the bishop remained four years in pre-
paratory study and then entered the seminary
at Heyeres, VAR, where, under the direction
of the Marist Fathers, he completed his theo-
logical course in four more years. He re-
turned to St. Paul in the fall of 1851, and was
ordained priest by Bishop Grace on Dec. 2lst
of that year. Bishop Ireland's subsequent Ca
reer and labors in behalf of the church and of
temperance and emigration are well known.
Though the administration of the diocese is
henceforth in the hands of Bishop Ireland,
Bishop Grace will probably still continue to
reside in the state, and will certainly remain
for sometime in St Paul His retirement is a
source of deep regret to all who know him;
not that they do not feel that he leaves his do
cese in able hands, but his kindness and cour-
tesy have made him thousands of friends who
regret that his failing health should have ne
cessitated his retirement from active life. The
twenty-f five years of his administration have
been years of great prosperity and phenomin-
al growth for the Catholic church in this sec
ton, and the bishop transfers to his successor
one of the wealthiest and most important do
ceses in the United States