Silas Chatard

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Silas Marean Chatard (1834-1918) was a Roman Catholic Bishop of Indianapolis in the United States.

He was born Francis Chatard in Baltimore, Maryland on December 13, 1834. Raised in Baltimore, he attended Mount Saint Mary's College (now Mount Saint Mary's University), receiving a doctorate in medicine.

Soon afterward, he received a revelation and began studying at the College of the Propaganda at Rome to become a priest. He was ordained in June 1862, and received a Doctor of Divinity degree from the college the next year.

Following his graduation, he served in the administration of the Pontifical North American College in Rome. In 1868, he became rector of the college, serving admirably until 1878, when he was ordained a Bishop and sent to Vincennes, Indiana to serve as Bishop of the diocese there.

While bishop, he oversaw the movement of the Episcopal see of the diocese of Vincennes to Indianapolis in 1898. Following the move, he was named as the first bishop of the newly-renamed diocese of Indianapolis. When he died on September 7, 1918, at the age of 83, he did so having enormously changed the face of the Catholic Church in Indiana.

The diocese of Indianapolis was split in 1944 into the dioceses of Evansville and Indianapolis.^[1]