BIOGRAPHY - BISHOP DENIS BRADLEY OF MANCHESTER NH ----------------------------------------- Information located at http://www.nh.searchroots.com/Manchester On a web site about GENEALOGY AND HISTORY OF MANCHESTER NEW HAMPSHIRE TRANSCRIBED BY JANICE BROWN Please see the web site for my email contact. ---------------------------------- The original source of this information is in the public domain, however use of this text file, other than for personal use, is restricted without written permission from the transcriber (who has edited, compiled and added new copyrighted text to same). ======================================================== SOURCE: History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire Philadelphia: J.W. Lewis & Co., 1885 ------------------- page 104-105 RIGHT REVEREND DENIS M. BRADLEY, BISHOP of MANCHESTER -- Bishop Bradley was born in Castle Island, County Kerry, Ireland, February 25, 1846. His father died in 1853, leaving his widow to care for their family of six children. In 1854 she came with them to America and settled in Manchester, N.H. where the boyhood of Bishop Bradley was passed. He attended the Catholic schools of Manchester, and for a more liberal education entered the College of the Holy Cross, located at Worcester, Mass., where he was graduated in 1867. In September of that year, he entered St. Joseph's Provincial Theological Seminary, located at Troy, N.Y., where, June 3, 1871, he was ordained priest. Shortly after his ordination he was assigned to the cathedral at Portland, Me., by Right Rev. Bishop Bacon, where he remained nine years, during which time he filled the various positions of rector of the cathedral, chancellor of the diocese and bishop's councilor under Bishop Bacon, and also under his successor, Bishop Healy. Close application and long-continued attention to his various duties at Portland impaired his health, and in 1879, with the view of regaining it, he went to Europe, where he remained six months, and returning but slightly improved by the change and rest, re-entered upon his duties at the cathedral, which had become even more exacting than when he left. After a short time, finding that he was unable to discharge the very laborious duties of his position, he was, on his account, chosen by Right Rev. Bishop Healy, in June, 1880, pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Manchester, N.H., which position he held until consecrated to the high position of bishop. It having been found that the diocese of Portland, embracing, as it did, the States of Maine and New Hampshire, were too large to be properly cared for by one bishop, the arch-bishop and bishops of the province of Boston united in a petition to the Holy See to create New Hampshire as a new diocese, with Manchester as the Episcopal See. The Holy Father, in accordance with the prayer of the petition, created the See of Manchester, and approinted Rev. Father Bradley its first bishop. He was consecrated in his cathedral church, in Manchester, June 11, 1884, by the Most Rev. ARchbishop of Boston, at the age of thirty-eight years, four months and six days, thus being the youngest person in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States to hold so exalted a position. There were present at the consecration ceremonies the arch-bishop, six bishops and one hundred and eighty-five priests. Bishop Bradley has under his jurisdiction about eight thousand Catholics, under the spiritual care of forty-five priests. There are in the new diocese forty churches, fifteen parochial schools, two academies for young ladies, two orphan asylums, one hospital and one home for aged women. Bishop Bradley is a gentleman of culture and has the confidence and respect of a large number of the citizens of the State, irrespective of denominational boundaries. (end)