Leonard Neale

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Archbishop Leaonard Neale

Styles of
Leonard Neale

Reference style	The Most Reverend
Spoken style	Your Excellency
Religious style	Monsignor
Posthumous style	none

Leonard Neale (October 15, 1746 — June 18, 1817) became, in 1800, the first Roman Catholic bishop ordained in the United States, and the second Archbishop of Baltimore. He devoted considerable time to the establishment of the Visitation Sisters, and also served as president of Georgetown College.

Leonard Neale was born in Port Tobacco, Maryland on October 15, 1746 to William and Anne (Brooke) Neale. He was educated in the College of Saint Omer, France, and later at Bruges and Liège, Belgium.^[1]

He became a member of the Society of Jesus, and after his ordination on June 5, 1777 he taught in colleges and officiated as pastor in different places in Europe. Father Neale was teaching in the Jesuit college of Bruges when that institution was seized by the Austro-Belgian government, and along with the other Jesuits was expelled. He moved to England, where he had charge of a small congregation, but after several years he sailed in 1779 for Demerara, where he worked zealously among the natives and settlers. At length his health was almost ruined by the inclemency of the climate and the severity of his labors. He left Demerara in January, 1783, and after a dangerous voyage, in which he fell into the hands of British cruisers, he reached the United States in April 1783.

In June of 1783 he attended a meeting of the clergy of Maryland at Whitemarsh and took an active part in its deliberations. He was stationed at St. Thomas's Manor among his relatives until 1793. He then went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and tended to victims of a yellow fever epidemic, even though his own health was in a delicate state. He was vigilant in his attentions to the sick and dying, and on the reappearance of yellow-fever in 1797 and 1798 he resumed his former exertions until he was stricken by the disease. While he was in Philadelphia he was appointed vicar-general for the northern states.

In 1798 Bishop Carroll called Father Neale from Philadelphia to succeed Rev. Dr. Dubourg in the presidency of the college at Georgetown. He acted in the dual capacity of president and tutor for several years and under his guidance the institution was developed from an academy into a college in 1801. The venerable Bishop Carroll had some time previous to this applied to Rome to name Father Neale as his co-adjutor bishop. Neal was consecrated a bishop by Bishop Carroll in 1800, but remained as President of Georgetown College until 1806

In 1799, Neale founded the Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, under the direction of the Sisters of the Visitation. Both the school and the convent are still vibrant more than 200 years later in the heart of Washington, DC.

A story that has come down through the years is that in the early morning hours of December 14, 1799 Father Neale was called to Mount Vernon from St. Mary’s Mission across the Piscataway River to give former President George Washington his last rites.^[2] Although Washington was an Episcopalian he had for years shown an interest in Roman Catholicism and is said to have had a death bed conversion to that faith being baptized by Father Neale. Although some Protestants and Freemasons argue against this story there is further evidence in the inventory of Washington's effects which included a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary and one of St. John.^[3] ^[4]

In 1809, his brother, Francis Neale, became president of Georgetown College.

Neale succeeded John Carroll as archbishop of Baltimore on December 3, 1815 and served until his death on June 18, 1817. As archbishop, he presided St. Mary's Catholic church's operations and decided upon his decision that appointed French priest Joseph Clorivière was to serve at St. Mary's Catholic. This wasn't welcomed by irishman John O'Raw and this nominee refusal was met with the Charleston schism (1815-1819)^[5].

His other brother, Charles Neale ( - 1823), was the leader of the Jesuit Mission in America by the time he died.

Preceded by Most Rev. Louis Guillaume Valentin Dubourg, S.S. #3	President of Georgetown University 1798-1806 #4	Succeeded by Robert Molyneux, S.J. #5
Preceded by John Carroll	Archbishop of Baltimore 1815 – 1817	Succeeded by Ambrose Maréchal