PURCELL
570
PURCELL
bdnez y Seminario, a Discalced Recollect, who was seminary, he set out for the scene of his life's work.
consecrated on 26 Feb., ISSl, and died in the same Going from Baltimore by stage to Wheeling, and
year. The diocese was then left vacant until 1909, its
last Apostolic administrator being Mgr. Ismael Puirre-
don, until Sept., 1909, when the present bishop, Mgr
Laisson, was consecrated.
The Diocese of Puno is divided into 9 ecclesiastical provinces, viz.: Cereado; Baja de Chucuito; Alta de Chucuito; Lampa; Baja de Lampa; Huancani; Azangaro; Carabaya, and Sandia. There is in the City of Puno a seminario conciliar for the education of the priesthood. The diocese is well supplied with pub- lic and private schools, some of the latter connected with the parishes. (See Peru.)
Julian Moreno-Lacalle.
Purcell, John Baptist, Archbishop of Cincin- nati, b. at Mallow, Ireland, 26 Feb., 1800; d. at the convent of the Ursulines, Brown County, Ohio, 4 July, 1883. Of his early edu- cation but few particulars can be found. His parents, Edward and Johanna Purcell, being in- dustrious and pious, gave their children all the advantages of the education attainable at a time when the penal laws were less rigorously enforced. John displayed remarkable talent and mastered all the branches of the school curricu- lum before his eighteenth year. Entrance into the colleges of Ireland was an impossibility. He therefore decided to seek in the United States the higher education denied him in his native country. Landing at Baltimore he applied for and obtained a teacher's certificate in the Asbury College. He spent about one year in giving lessons as private tutor in some of the prominent families of Baltimore. His ambition was to become a priest, and this he never lost sight of while teach- ing others as a means of obtaining a livelihood. On 20 June, 1820, he entered Mount St. Mary's Seminary, Emmitsburg. His previous knowledge of the classics
from \\Tieeling to Cincinnati by steamboat, he
reached his destination 14 Nov., 1833. Bishops Flaget,
David of Bardstown, Rese of Detroit, and a few
priests met him and conducted him to his cathedral,
which was on Sycamore Street. He was canonically
installed by Bishop Flaget, who made the address
of welcome. After the installation Bishop Rese,
who had been administrator of the diocese during
the vacancy, made the legal transfer of the property
in his charge. The site of the first cathedral and
at that time the only church in the city, a humble
structure, is now occupied by the imposing St.
Xavier's Church, accommodating over one thousand
families, under the care of the Jesuit P'athers. On
his arrival in 1833 Bishop Purcell found himself in a
city of about 30,000 inhabitants and only one church.
The diocese embraced the whole State of Ohio.
The prospect presented to
the young bishop, then in his
thirty-third year, was enough
to fill his mind with misgiv-
ing and dread. The difficul-
ties increased, for soon the
tide of immigration turned to-
wards Ohio. Immigrants from
Germany and Ireland came in
thousands, and as they were all
Catholics it became his duty to
provide for their spiritual
wants, and that had to be done
quickly. A seminary had been
founded by Bishop Fenwick in
the Athenaeum, which stood
near the cathedral. The num-
ber of students was of course
very small, but Bishop Purcell
had to rely on this little band to
help him in his work. He be-
gan his work as a bishop with
an energy and earnestness that
never flagged during his whole
life. He was untiring in his
labour, preaching and giving
lectures, writing articles for the
"Telegraph", a Catholic paper
founded by Father Young, a nephew of Bishop Fen-
wick, the first Catholic paper published in the West.
He taught classes in the seminary. At his first ordina-
made it an easy task for him to take charge of important tion he raised to the priesthood Juncker, afterwards first
John Baptist Purcell
classes in the college, and at the same time prepare
himself for the priesthood by the study of philoso-
phy, theology, and other branches of ecclesiastical
science. After three years' study in the seminary
he received tonsure and minor orders from Arch-
Bishop of Alton, Illinois. He lost no tune in providing
for the wants of the growing Church in Cincinnati.
Holy Trinity on Fifth Street, the first church built for
the German-speaking Catholics, was soon followed by
another, St. Mary's, at Clay and Thirteenth Streets.
bishop Mareschal, of Baltimore, at the close of 1823. Finding it impossible to provide professors or give his
On 1 March, 1824, in the company of Rev. Shnon own time to the seminary, he called to his aid the Jesuit
Gabriel Brutfi, one of the professors of the seminary. Fathers, to whom he gave over the church property
afterwards first Bishop of Vincennes, he sailed for on Sycamore Street, and purchased a site for his new
Europe to complete his studies in the Sulpician Sem- cathedral on Plum and Eighth Streets, and Western
inaries of Issy and Paris. On 26 May, 1826, he was Row, then the western boundary of Cincinnati.
one of the three hundred priests ordained in the cathe-
dral of Paris by Archbishop de Quelen. After his or-
dination he continued his studies until the autumn
of 1827, when he returned to the United States to
enter Mount St. Mary's Seminary as professor.
He afterwards became president, until his appoint-
ment as Bishop of Cincinnati, Ohio, to succeed the
saintly Fenwick. He received notice of his appoint-
ment in Aug., 1833, and was consecrated bishop
in the cathedral of Baltimore, 13 Oct., 1833, by Arch-
bishop Whitfield. He attended the sessions of the
Third Provincial Council of Baltimore, which opened
on the day of his consecration and continued for one
week.
Western Row is now Central Avenue. The new
cathedral, a magnificent structure 200 feet long and
80 feet wide, built of Dayton limestone, with its
beautiful spire of solid stone rising to the height
of 22.5 feet, is one of the finest in the West. This
grand temple was completed and consecrated by
Archbishop Eccleston of Baltimore, 26 Oct., 1846,
thirteen years after Bishop Purcell's arrival at
Cincinnati. After trying several locations for his
diocesan seminary, he finally located it on Price Hill,
west of the city limits. The main building was com-
pleted and opened for the theologians in 1851. He
called it Mount St. Mary's of the West, after his
own Alma Mater at Emmitsburg. Two orphan
AJfter winding up his affairs in connexion with the asylums were established, St. Aloysius's for the chil-
