Leo Michael Haid

Leo Michael Haid
Born July 15, 1849
Died July 24, 1924 (aged 75)

Leo Michael Haid, O.S.B. (July 15, 1849 – July 24, 1924) was an Benedictine abbot and Catholic bishop serving as Abbot of the Abbey of Mary Help of Christians, in Belmont, North Carolina from 1885-1924 and as Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina from 1888-1910 and Territorial Abbot from 1910-1924.

Biography

Haid was born July 15, 1849 near Latrobe, Pennsylvania to a family of German immigrants. He studied at the Abbey of St. Vincent in Latrobe and there became a Benedictine novice in 1868, made first profession as a monk on September 17, 1869, and was ordained a priest on December 21, 1872, serving the monastery college thereafter as professor and chaplain.

In 1885 he became the founding abbot of Mary Help of Christians Abbey in what was then Garibaldi, North Carolina and in 1886 founded there a seminary and a lay college, Belmont Abbey College. On February 4, 1888 he was appointed Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina and was ordained bishop by Baltimore Cardinal Archbishop James Gibbons on July 1, 1888, becoming the first American abbot-bishop.

Haid served as president of the American Cassinese Congregation from 1890-1902 and was a prominent authority on monastic life in the United States. He helped establish and supervise Benedictine foundations in Virginia, Georgia, and Florida.

On August 27, 1899, he dedicated St. Nicholas' Catholic Church (Zanesville, Ohio), as Bishop John Ambrose Watterson had died the previous April, 1899. In 1909 he laid the cornerstone of the St. Mary Catholic Church in Wilmington, North Carolina.

On June 8, 1910 Pope Pius X erected Belmont Abbey as a territorial abbey and appointed Haid abbot nullius with canonical jurisdiction over eight counties in North Carolina (Gaston, Catawba, Cleveland, Burke, Lincoln, McDowell, Polk, and Rutherford).

Haid died at Belmont Abbey July 24, 1924, aged 75, and was entombed in the Abbey Cemetery.

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