Patrick Richard Heffron

Patrick Richard Heffron (June 1, 1860 – November 23, 1927) was the second Roman Catholic bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Winona, in Winona, Minnesota.[1]

He was born in New York City. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest for what is now the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. On March 4, 1910, Pope Pius X appointed him Bishop of the Winona Diocese; he died in 1927 while still bishop.[2]

On the morning of 27 August 1915, he was shot twice while celebrating private mass by a disgruntled priest named Laurence M. Lesches, who after many reassignments had demanded a parish of his own and had been turned down because of his arrogant behavior and emotional instability.[3] Heffron survived, but the paranoid Lesches was committed to an insane asylum where he remained until his death in 1943.[4] This incident, which was followed by accidental deaths among some of Heffron's acquaintances, is the explanation given for the supposed haunting of Heffron Hall by Lesches.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "The History of the DIOCESE OF WINONA". Diocese of Winona. Retrieved 22 July 2011.
  2. ↑ Cheney, David. "Bishop Patrick Richard Heffron". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. Retrieved 22 July 2011.
  3. ↑ Ehrlick, Darrell (2008). It Happened in Minnesota. Kearney, Nebraska: Morris Book Publishing. p. 73 - 75. ISBN 9780762743322.
  4. ↑ "Answer Man: Winona bishop survived 1915 shooting". Post Bulletin. Rochester, Minnesota. September 4, 2015. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  5. ↑ Michael Norman. The Nearly Departed. Minnesota Historical Society, 2009.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.