Samuel Eccleston

The Most Reverend Samuel Eccleston, S.S.
Archbishop of Baltimore
See	Archdiocese of Baltimore
Installed	October 19, 1834
Term ended	April 22, 1851
Predecessor	James Whitfield
Successor	Francis Patrick Kenrick
Other posts	Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Richmond (1835-1840)
Orders
Ordination	April 24, 1825 by Ambrose Maréchal
Consecration	September 14, 1834 by James Whitfield
Personal details
Born	(1801-06-27)June 27, 1801 Chestertown, Maryland
Died	May 22, 1851(1851-05-22) (aged 49) Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Denomination	Roman Catholic Church
Parents	Samuel Eccleston and Martha Hyson
Signature

Samuel Eccleston, S.S. (June 27, 1801 – April 22, 1851) was an American clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the fifth Archbishop of Baltimore from 1834 until his death in 1851.

Early life

Samuel Eccleston was born near Chestertown, Maryland, to Samuel and Martha (née Hyson) Eccleston and raised Episcopalian.^[1] His grandfather, John Eccleston, was from Preston in North West England, and came to the Colony of Maryland in the middle of the 18th century.^[2] His father, who had three children from a previous marriage, died when Samuel was a young boy.^[3] Following his father's death, his widowed mother remarried a Catholic gentleman named Stenson.^[4] Young Eccleston was sent to St. Mary's College in Baltimore, run by the Sulpician Fathers, to be educated, and converted to Catholicism on May 29, 1819.^[5]

Priesthood

Following his conversion, Eccleston decided to enter the priesthood, and enrolled at St. Mary's Seminary in July 1819.^[2] He was ordained a priest by Archbishop Ambrose Maréchal on April 24, 1825.^[5] Later that year, he entered the Sulpicians, and continued his studies at the Grand Seminary of Saint-Sulpice in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France.^[1] After visiting England and Ireland, Eccleston returned to Baltimore in July 1827. He became a faculty member and Vice-President at his alma mater, St. Mary's Seminary, and the institution's President in 1829.^[4][2]

Episcopacy

On March 4, 1834, Pope Gregory XVI appointed Eccleston Coadjutor Archbishop of Baltimore and Titular Archbishop of Thermae Basilicae.^[5] He received his episcopal consecration on the following September 14 from Archbishop James Whitfield, with Bishops Benedict Joseph Flaget, S.S., and Francis Patrick Kenrick serving as co-consecrators, in the Cathedral of the Assumption.^[5] Upon Archbishop Whitfield's death on October 19, 1834, Eccleston succeeded him as the fifth Archbishop of Baltimore.^[5] At the age of 34, he became the youngest cleric to become Archbishop in the Archdiocese's history.^[1] In 1835, the Holy See appointed Eccleston Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, an office which he held until the appointment of Richard Vincent Whelan in 1840.^[5] Because Richmond was thus a subordinate diocese, Eccleston received the pallium, a vestment worn by metropolitan bishops, on November 1, 1835, as his predecessor had in 1829.^[1]

Eccleston encouraged religious orders to establish houses in his diocese, particularly those who could provide social services to the growing number of Catholic immigrants in the industrializing cities. The Sisters of the Visitation increased the number of their academies, the Brothers of St. Patrick came to direct a trade school near Baltimore, and the Redemptorists cared particularly for German-speaking immigrants.^[6] The Brothers of the Christian Schools founded Calvert Hall School in 1845, and St. Charles College was established in 1849.^[4] Between 1837 and 1849, bishop Eccleston held five Provincial Councils of Baltimore; he even invited the exiled Pope Pius IX to preside over the Seventh Provincial Council in 1849.^[1] Several new churches were erected during his administration as well.^[6]

Eccleston died in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., aged 49.^[4]

References