Richard Phelan

Richard Phelan, D.D. (January 1, 1828 – December 20, 1904) was an Irish-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as the fourth bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States from 1889 to 1904.

Rt. Rev. Richard Phelan
Bishop of Pittsburgh
A lithograph portrait of Bishop Phelan from The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography
Church	Roman Catholic Church
See	Pittsburgh
In office	December 7, 1889 – October 20, 1904
Predecessor	John Tuigg
Successor	Regis Canevin
Orders
Ordination	May 4, 1854
Personal details
Born	January 1, 1828 Ballyragget, Ireland
Died	December 20, 1904 (aged 76) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Previous post	Titular Bishop of Cibyra

Background

Richard Phelan was born on January 1, 1828 in Sralee, near Ballyragget, County Kilkenny, Ireland, to Michael and Mary Keoghan Phelan. Of their nine children, four entered religious life. He was educated by private tutors, and at St Kieran's College, Kilkenny.[1] In 1850, as a seminarian, he volunteered to accompany Bishop Michael O'Connor of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, to the United States. He continued his studies at the Seminary of St. Michael and after two years entered St. Mary's Theological Seminary, Baltimore, Maryland. He was ordained priest in Pittsburgh on May 4, 1854.[2]

Father was assigned to a mission in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, but returned to Pittsburgh later that year to assist during a cholera epidemic. He served in the Pittsburgh area based out of Saint Paul Cathedral. One parish he visited was St. Michael the Archangel in Elizabeth.[3] After three years he was sent to Freeport, Pennsylvania, and in 1868, became pastor of St. Peter's Catholic Church in Allegheny City. He built a new church at a cost of more than $150,000. In 1876, this church became the pro-cathedral of the new diocese of Allegheny. He also completed the schools that his predecessor had begun. During the absence of Bishop John Tuigg in 1881 he was appointed administrator of the dioceses of Pittsburgh and Allegheny, and he was subsequently made vicar-general.[4]

Bishop

Bishop Tuigg suffered a series of strokes. In 1885 Phelan was nominated coadjutor to the two sees, with right of succession, and on August 2 was consecrated bishop of Cebeyra in partibus infidelium by Archbishop Patrick John Ryan.[5] At that point, he handled the actual administration of the diocese, but continued to reside in Allegheny.

On 1 July, 1889, the See of Allegheny was totally suppressed, and the Diocese of Pittsburg was declared to embrace the territory of what had been the two dioceses, as though no division had ever taken place. The administration of Bishop Phelan was a remarkably successful one. He was a man of prudent zeal and extraordinary business ability. The people of many nationalities who were coming in large numbers to find work in the mines and mills of Western Pennsylvania were formed into regular congregations, supplied with pastors who could speak their own languages. In May, 1901, the counties of Cambria, Blair, Bedford, Huntingdon, and Somerset were taken from the Diocese of Pittsburg to form, with several counties taken from the Diocese of Harrisburg, the new Diocese of Altoona.[6]

Phelan became Bishop of Pittsburgh and Allegheny upon the death of Bishop Tuigg on December 7, 1889. The administration of Bishop Phelan saw the growth and development of the iron, steel, coal, and coke industries, in the western portion of the state. The sudden advent of immense Catholic populations with strange tongues and strange customs, and all of them impoverished, gave rise to problems that would have taxed the ablest men. But the difficulties that arose were either solved or the way for their solution was prepared.[6]

Phelan died on December 20, 1904 at St. Paul's Orphan Asylum, in Idlewood, Pennsylvania,[6] and was buried in St. Mary Cemetery in the city's Lawrenceville neighborhood.

References

1. Judge, Thomas E., "The Rt. Rev. Richard Phelan", Lives of American Prelates, Wm. J. McAssey, 1902, p. 96 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
2. "Bishop Phelan Goes to His Final Rest" San Francisco Call, Vol. 97, Number 21, 21 December 1904 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
3. "The Beginning". St. Michael Parish, Elizabeth, Pennsylvania
4. Shea, John Gilmary. "Right Rev. Richard Phelan, D.D.", The Hierarchy of the Catholic Church in the United States, Office of Catholic Publications, 1886, p. 353 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
5. Clarke, Richard Henry. "Rt. Rev. Richard Phelan D.D.", History of the Catholic Church in the United States from the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Gebbie & Company, 1890, p. 22 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
6. Canevin, Regis. "Pittsburgh." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 1 September 2019 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pittsburgh". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Sources

• Glenn, Francis A. (1993). Shepherds of the Faith 1843-1993: A Brief History of the Bishops of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh: Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh. ISBN none.

External links

• Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh History of Bishops webpage
• Photos of Phelan's tombstone and inscription