The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-02-18
A R C H B IS HOP GRAC {
A Biographical Sketch of
the Second Bishop
of St. Paul.

The Catholic Bulletin takes pleasure
in reproducing the following biograph-
ical sketch of the Rt. Rev. Thomas
Langdon Grace, D. d., second Bishop of
ST. Paul, taken from the Dominican
Year Book for 1911
/ A native of South Carolina, Thomas
L. Grace entered the Order of st. Dom
inic in his tender years, receiving the
habit in 1880, along with five other
aspirants, two of whom were Ottawa
Indians, and after his religious profess
sion was sent from St. Roses Monas-
terry, Kentucky, to Rome to make his
higher studies. There his talents and
industry won him the reputation of
being great scholar After his ordin-
alton, and when his course of studies
had been completed, he returned to
America-early in the forties of last
century. Though the purpose of send
ing him abroad had been largely that
he might on his return fill a profess
sorial chair in his Order, a position
for which his talents and studious
habits eminently fitted him, he had de-
voted but few years to teaching in
the converts of st. Joseph, Ohio, and
st. Rose, Kentucky, when his superiors
adjudged him the right man to help in
the upbuilding of the Church in Mem
! phis, Tenn. He was sent to Memphis
in 1847 or 1848 as assistant to Father
J. S. Alemany, later the first Archbish-
op of San Francisco; but in year or
two, Father Alemany, having been
transferred to ST. Roses, Kentucky, to
be master of novices, Father Grace
was made pastor of st. Peters Church,
that city, post which he held until his
appointment to succeed the Rt. Rev.
Joseph Cretin in the See of ST. Paul,
MINI.
/ During his pastorate in Memphis,
Father Grace built st. Peters Church,
which, even after its more than fifty
years of service, is still the finest
Catholic Church in the city. Looking
to the advancement of Catholic edu-
cation and the protection of the or
phan, he also early brought the Do
minican Sisters to Memphis and open
ed a school and orphan asylum, in
both of which he took a deep per-
sonal concern. His genial, open char
acter, his sympathetic interest in all
forms of charity and civic enterprise,
his intellectual attainments and splen-
did oratorical powers made him not
only one of the bestowed citizens of
the city, but also one of the most noted
clergymen of the South. His popular
ity knew no distinction of creed, and
the papers of the day were unanimous
in voicing the keen regret caused by
his departure for his new post of hon
or. To the credit of Bishop Grace's
humility it must also be said that he
strongly declined the Episcopal ap-
lpointment and returned the first Bulls
of nomination, bowing his head to the
voice of authority only when it became
positively necessary.
Consecrated in St Louis by the late
Archbishop Kenrick, Sunday, July "a,
1859, he started at the earliest oppor-
tunity for his onerous charge in the
North A letter from one not of the
fold, as copied by the Catholic Tele-
graph" of Cincinnati Ohio, Sept. 3,
) 1859, from the New Orleans Catholic
Standard" gives us the following &C
count of the welcome he received in
his episcopal city: 1--WE learn from a
Protestant letter-writer that the new
prelate was received at his see with
extraordinary marks of reverential
welcome. All the bells of the Catholic
churches of ST. Paul announced his ar
: rival, and great numbers of the citi-
j zens and military escorted him in his
, carriage to his episcopal residence.
In the evening the Cathedral was
thronged by the faithful and others to
assist at his first celebration in his
/ diocese of Pontifical Vespers. May
. these consoling demonstrations be the
auspicious commencement of bounti-
; full harvest in the field of his apostolic
. labors." These hopes were fully real
lied, for all Catholics in the State of
, Minnesota well know how faithfully
J and tirelessly the good Bishop culti-
/ waited that portion of the Church's vine
| yard which was entrusted to his
charge. After having courageously
borne the heavy burden of the episco-
pacy for period of five and twenty
: years, feeling that the infirmities of old
| age were creeping upon him, and real
, izing that his extensive and scattered
/ diocese should be placed in younger
and stronger hands, Bishop Grace re-
: signed, in 1884, In favor Of his young
: friend and coadjutor, the Rt. Rev. John
| Ireland Five years later. in 1889, his
| former diocese having been raised to
| an archbishopric and his successor
| created an Archbishop, and also as a
J reward for his merits and apostolic
zeal, Bishop Grace was made Titular
, Archbishop of Siunia. He died Feb.
% 1897. aged about eightY-fiVe.