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A portrait of Bishop James Augustine Healy during his time as Bishop of Portland. Pilot photo/courtesy Archdiocesan Archives

From the Archdiocesan Archives

The episcopal consecration of Bishop James Augustine Healy

Friday, June 13, 2025Culture

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About the appointment, The Pilot wrote, "He has labored so long and steadily in Boston that it is difficult for us to realize the void his departure will leave, or to reconcile ourselves to a loss which must be so keenly felt ..."

Last Monday, June 2, marked the 150th anniversary of the episcopal consecration of James Augustine Healy as the second Bishop of Portland, Maine.
James Augustine Healy was born into slavery in Jones County, Georgia, on April 6, 1830, to Michael Morris Healy, an enslaver, and Mary Eliza, a mixed-race enslaved woman. Since Georgia law prohibited the education of black people, James and several of his nine siblings were sent to the North for education. Initially educated at Quaker schools, the Roman Catholic Healy children later entered Catholic schools in Massachusetts, after their father became acquainted with Boston's Bishop John B. Fitzpatrick in the early 1840s. At the age of 15, James enrolled in the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, where he was baptized in November of 1844.
After leaving the South, James and most of his siblings were able to "pass" as white -- their light skin and the wealth of their father allowing them to live in relative comfort in the North, their true racial identities mostly unknown. Following his graduation from Holy Cross in July of 1849, James entered St. Sulpice Seminary in Montreal and was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Boston at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on June 10, 1854, making him the first (known) black priest to be ordained in the United States.

The new Father Healy's first assignment was to St. John Parish in the North End (which became St. Stephen in 1862). But Boston's Bishop Fitzpatrick had greater plans for the young priest, in whom he had taken an interest for nearly two decades by the time of his ordination. In December 1854, the bishop appointed Father Healy his personal secretary. On June 24, 1855, he made Father Healy the first chancellor of the diocese. In this capacity, Father Healy served for more than a decade, taking on most of the day-to-day responsibilities for running the diocese in the 1860s as Bishop Fitzpatrick's health deteriorated.
Following the death of Bishop Fitzpatrick in February 1866, Father Healy was appointed pastor of St. James in Boston on April 1, 1866 -- a prestigious appointment for a priest who was still young at age 35. During his tenure at St. James, Healy received his Doctor of Divinity from Holy Cross and oversaw the construction of a new church building for his parish.
On Feb. 12, 1875, Pope Pius IX appointed Father Healy the second Bishop of Portland, Maine. About the appointment, The Pilot wrote, "He has labored so long and steadily in Boston that it is difficult for us to realize the void his departure will leave, or to reconcile ourselves to a loss which must be so keenly felt ... Boston in resigning him to the sister Diocese of Portland sends one singularly qualified to walk in the footprints and supplement the labors of the late distinguished prelate."
Father Healy arrived in Portland on May 22, where he was greeted in a large reception by the city's Catholic Union. "The Hall was tastefully decorated with flags and bunting," The Pilot reported. "On the platform was surmounted a grand arch of evergreens in the centre of which was the word 'Welcome,' in beautiful gilt letters, and on either side was suspended two fine banners of the Blessed Virgin, and St. Patrick."
On the morning of the episcopal consecration, more than 2,000 souls (including a party of more than 100 who had travelled from Boston) filed into Portland's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, allowing for only standing room by 9:20 a.m. Boston's Bishop (later Archbishop) John J. Williams was the consecrating prelate, with 10 other bishops assisting. Prominent among the clergy was Father Sherwood Healy, the new bishop's brother, a distinguished theologian and priest for the Diocese of Boston, who served as the cross-bearer for the Mass.
Again, the reporter for The Pilot painted the scene for his readers: "The high altar was ablaze with lights, and the sun, streaming through the stained glass windows, conferred an illumination that mortal hands would have failed to afford ... the clouds of incense, the symbols of spiritual power, all tended to impress the beholder, while over and above all swelled the notes of the full organ in a strain of joy and gladness." During the four-hour ceremony, it fell to Father Sherwood Healy to read the Papal Bull appointing his brother to the See of Portland.
In his homily, Archbishop Thomas-Louis Connolly of Halifax, Nova Scotia, declared to Bishop Healy, "You are no longer a stranger to us, but are one of us. One of that brotherhood, which is the Church. You are a subordinate of one great head, without this centre we should fall to pieces, we should have no glorious and abiding faith, no glorious principles to guide us, no sacred mission to perform."
Bishop James Augustine Healy, the first black American priest and bishop, would serve the Diocese of Portland for more than 25 years until his death on Aug. 5, 1900.

VIOLET HURST IS THE ARCHIVIST OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF BOSTON.

- Violet Hurst is an archivist for the Archdiocese of Boston.