Cardinal James Gibbons (1834-1921)

Today marks the death of Cardinal James Gibbons (1834-1921), Archbishop of Baltimore and the second American Cardinal. Born in Baltimore to Irish immigrants, he was living in New Orleans when he decided to pursue the priesthood. In 1861 he was ordained for the Baltimore archdiocese. During the Civil War he served as a chaplain at Fort McHenry. In 1868 he was named Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina. At age 34, he was then the youngest bishop in the world. Four years later he was named Bishop of Richmond. In 1877 he became Archbishop of Baltimore. Nine years later he was named the second American Cardinal (John McCloskey of New York was the first in 1875). During his 44 years in Baltimore, it was said that he reigned like a king “but met every man like a comrade.” He championed the cause of labor at a time when many bishops were afraid to do so. His defense of the Knights of Labor, a nationwide union movement, showed the nation and the world that the Church was the friend of the worker. His 1876 book Faith of Our Fathers, an explanation of the Catholic faith, is still in print. At the time of his death, the Baltimore Sun wrote of him: “The Catholic Church has given many distinguished prelates and priests to its work in this country, but none who has inspired the same general confidence and the same earnest esteem… To all he seems to speak in their own tongues by some Pentecostal power, or by some subtle affinity that makes nothing human alien to him.”