Oregon City, Archdiocese of (Oregonopolitan), includes that part of the State of Oregon west of the
Cascade Mountains, being bounded on the east by the
counties of Wasco, Crook, and Klamath. It com-
prises an area of 21,398 square miles. By an indult of
the Holy See dated 28 Feb., 1836, the Oregon Country
north of the American line was annexed to the vi-
cariate .postolic of Mgr Provencher of Red River.
By letters of 17 April, 1838, Rev. F. N. Blanchet was
appointed vicar-general to the Archbishop of Quebec
and assigned to the Oregon mission. The vicar-gen-
eral established his first mission at St. Paul on the Wil-
lamette, and on 6 Jan., 1839, dedicated at that place
the first Catholic church in Oregon. The church had
been constructed three years earlier by the Canadian
settlers who had anticipated the coming of a mission-
ary among them.
As the line of demarcation between British and American territory was still undecided, and missionary priests had been sent into the country both from Canada and from the United States (De Smet had come from St. Louis), Oregon became a joint mission depending upon the Bishops of Quebec and Baltimore. At the suggestion of these bishops, the mission was erected into a vicariate Apostolic by a brief of 1 Dec, 1843. On 24 July, 1846, the vicariate was trans- formed into a province comprising the Archdiocese of Oregon City and the Dioceses of Walla Walla and Vancouver's Island. With the transfer of the See of Walla Walla to Nesqually (1848), the northern boundary of the Archdiocese of Oregon City was fixed at the Columbia River and the 46° lat. This territory was diminished by the erection of the Vicariate of Idaho (1868) and finally received its present limits by the erection of the Diocese of Baker City (1903). Bishops: (1) Frangois Norbert Blanchet (q. v.), b. 3 Sept., 1795, consecrated 2.5 July, 1S4.5. There were in the diocese in 1845 ten priests, thirteen Sisters of Notre-Dame, and two educational institutions. The first priest ordained in Oregon was Father Jayol, the ceremony being performed by Archbishop Blanchet at St. Paul, 19 Sept., 1847. On 30 Nov., the archbishop consecrated at St. Paul, Bishop Demers of Vancouver's Island. He convened the First Provincial Council of Oregon City, 28 Feb., 1848. On 21 Dec, Archbishop Blanchet left St. Paul and took up his residence at Oregon City. In 1852 the first church in the City of Portland was dedicated under the title of the Immac- ulate Conception. It became the pro-cathedral when Archbishop Blanchet moved to Portland in 18G2. (2) Charles John Seghers, b. 26 Dec, 1839, at Ghent, successor to the pioneer Bishop Demers of Vancou- ver's Island, was transferred to Oregon City, 10 Dec, 1878, and became coadjutor to Archbishop Blanchet who at once retired from active life. Archbishop Seghers is remembered for his heroic devotion to the Indian missions of Alaska (q. v.), which led him to resign the See of Oregon City in 1884. (3) William H. Gross (consecrated Bishop of Savannah, 1873) was promoted to the archiepiscopal See of Oregon City, 1 Feb., 1885, and invested with the pallium in Portland by His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons 9 Oct. On his death 14 Nov., 1898, he was succeeded by the present archbishop. (4) Most Rev. Alexander Christie (consecrated Bishop of Vancouver's Island, 29 June, 1898) was promoted to the archiepiscopal See of Ore- gon City, 12 Feb., 1899. Statistics for 1909: diocesan priests, 50; priests of rel. orders, 40; colleges, 3; sec- ondary schools, 12; elementary schools, 35; pupils, 5500. Blanchet. Historical Sketches (Portland. 1870); The Catholic Sentinel (Portland, IS70-1910), files; Catholic Directory; Diocesan Archives, Edwin V. O'Hara.
O'Reilly, Bernard, historian, b. 29 Sept., 1820, in County Mayo, Ireland; d. in New York, U. S. A., 26 April, 1907. In early life he emigrated to Canada, where in 1836 he entered Laval University. He was ordained priest in Quebec, 12 Sept., 1843, and minis- tered in several parishes of that diocese. He was one of the heroic priests who attended the plague-stricken Irish emigrants in the typhus-sheds along the St. Law- rence after the "black '47". Later he entered the Society of Jesus and was attached to St. John's Col- lege, Fordham, New York. When the Civil War broke out he went as a chaplain in the Irish Brigade and served with the Army of the Potomac during a large part of its campaigns. He then withdrew from the Jesuits and devoted himself to literature, becoming one of the editorial staff of the "New American Cyclo- pedia" to which he contributed articles on Catholic topics. At the conclusion of tliis work he travelled ex- tensively in Europe, sending for several years an in- teresting series of letters to the New York " Sun " . He lived for a long period in Rome where Pope Leo XIII, besides appointing him a prothonotary Apostolic in 1887, gave him the special materials for his "Life of Leo XIII" (New York, 1887). Among the m.any books he published these were notable: "Life of Pius IX" (1877); "Mirror of True Womanhood" (1876); "True Men" (1878); "Key of Heaven" (1878); "The Two Brides" (1879); "Life of John MacHale, Arch- bishop of Tuam" (1890). On his return to New York from Europe he was made chaplain at the convent of Mount St. Vincent, where he spent the rest of his days. On the occasion of his sacerdotal jubilee he was given a signed testimonial of appreciation of his fellow priests and friends. Catholic News (New York, May, 1907); Ave Maria (Notre Dame, Indiana), files; Nat, Cyclo. of Am. Biog., s. v. Thomas F. Meehan. O'Reilly, Charles Joseph. See Baker City, Diocese of. O'Reilly, Edmund, Archbishop of Armagh, b. at Dublin, 1616; d. at Saumur, France, 1669, was edu- cated in Dublin and ordained there in 1629. After ordination he studied at Louvain, where he held the position of prefect of the college of Irish Secular Ec- clesiastics. In 1640 he returned to Dublin and was appointed vicar-general. In 1642 the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Fleming, having been ajipointed on the Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholics, trans- ferred his residence to Kilkenny and until 1648 O'Reilly administered the Archdiocese of Dublin. With the triumph of the Puritans he was imprisoned, and in 1653, ordered to quit the kingdom, he took refuge at the Irish College of Lisle where he was noti- fied of his appointment to the See of Armagh, and shortly after consecrated at Brussels. Ireland was then a dangerous place for ecclesiastics, and not until 1658 did he attempt to visit his diocese; even then he could proceed no farther than London. Ordered to quit the kingdom, he returned to France, but in the following year went to Ireland, this time directly from France, and for the next two years exercised his min- istry. Accused of favouring the Puritans and of being an enemy of the Stuarts, he was ordered by the pope to quit Ireland. At Rome he was able to vindicate himself, but he was not allowed to return to Ireland by the English authorities until 1665, and then only in the hope that he would favour the Remonstrance of Peter Walsh. O'Reilly, like the great majority of the Irish bishops and priests, rejected it, nor could the entrea- ties of Walsh or the threats of Ormond change him. In consequence he was imprisoned by Ormond, and when released, driven from the kingdom. He spent
