Culture

The title page of Bishop Fenwick's "Memoirs." Pilot photo/courtesy Archdiocesan Archives

From the Archdiocesan Archives

200 years ago: Bishop Fenwick's first weeks in Boston

Friday, January 30, 2026Culture

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Even where Catholics did enjoy the privilege of a regular pastor, the bishop found that conditions were deficient.

A little over a year ago, Archbishop Richard G. Henning was installed as Archbishop of Boston, the 11th bishop and seventh archbishop of the see. He became the head of an archdiocese comprising nearly 2 million Catholics, 247 parishes, 92 schools, over 900 priests, and about 850 women religious.
Two hundred years ago, another man arrived in Boston to step into his new role as the chief shepherd of the diocese, which was then still a half-century from being elevated to an archdiocese. He was Bishop Benedict J. Fenwick, SJ, the second Bishop of Boston, and the diocese he inherited would be virtually unrecognizable to us today.
Appointed on May 10, 1825, Bishop Fenwick arrived in Boston on Dec. 3 of that year, having received his episcopal consecration in Baltimore on Nov. 1. He immediately began to take stock of his diocese, which had been vacant for two years following the departure of Bishop Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus to France, recording his findings in a handwritten journal (kept variously in the first and third person) that is now held by the Archdiocesan Archives.

"The Diocese of Boston comprehends all the New England States. The Catholics reside principally in Boston," he wrote on Christmas Day, 1825. "In other parts of the states their number is comparatively small." In the whole diocese (which then stretched across nearly 72,000 square miles), there were only eight churches, "all of which," the bishop remarked, "with the exception of the Cathedral scarcely deserve the name."
Bishop Fenwick found that he had little help to cover his sprawling territory. At the time of his arrival, there were two priests in Boston, Father William Taylor, the vicar general, and Father Patrick Byrne. The former departed from Boston for Europe immediately upon the bishop's arrival, wishing to rejoin his friend Bishop Cheverus in France. The latter remained in Boston, splitting duties with his new bishop at the cathedral and ministering to the Catholics of Salem about once per month. Two other priests, Father Virgil F. Barber and Father Dennis Ryan, resided in New Hampshire and Maine, respectively, and attended to the Catholics of those states. This shortage of priests meant that many of the Catholics of New England -- most notably, in terms of their population, the Catholics of the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes in Maine -- were without regular access to the sacraments.
Alleviating the shortage of priests would prove one of Bishop Fenwick's most persistent challenges. As he would later write (in the third person) in his "Memoirs," he faced a situation where he lacked "any means of increasing his Clergy, or even of being able to add to their number in his present emergency." The issue persisted for years, as an 1830 entry in the bishop's journal demonstrates: "The cry from every quarter is: send us a Priest -- and they are mad because I have none to send them."
As early as March 1826, Bishop Fenwick began to take steps to fill his ranks with priests. On that date, he wrote "several letters to the Bp of Philadelphia urging him to let him have one or two priests for a few years ... or until he can provide himself from other parts." He begged the same of the Superior of the Society of Jesus, of which he was a member. He also ordered the return of a priest who had been working for some years in Quebec and sent letters to "his friends ... in Pennsylvania and Maryland promising them employment."
Even where Catholics did enjoy the privilege of a regular pastor, the bishop found that conditions were deficient. On Jan. 2, 1826, he recorded a visit of "several individuals belonging to the Congregation in Boston" complaining of their "great dissatisfaction with the conduct and move of those who were entrusted with the Books of the Church." To Bishop Fenwick, the situation at the cathedral smacked of Trusteeism, a practice whereby lay parishioners claimed excessive pastoral and administrative powers, even over the hiring and dismissing of priests. He treaded carefully, initially supporting the committee members but shortly thereafter dispensing with their services, restoring control of the cathedral's affairs to his own person.
Recalling the early days in Boston, Bishop Fenwick wrote in his "Memoirs" that "he saw himself in a situation far from enviable -- in a section of the country to which he was a perfect stranger, without a single confidential friend or acquaintance, and in the midst of a congregation wholly unknown to him and particularly devoted and attached to their late Pastor (Father Taylor)." In the 20 years that followed, Bishop Fenwick would come to be embraced by the Catholics of New England. By the end of his episcopate in 1846, there were 70,000 Catholics, 37 priests, and 44 churches in the Diocese of Boston.

VIOLET HURST IS THE ARCHIVIST FOR THE ARCHDIOCESE OF BOSTON.

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