John Baptist Purcell

John Baptist Purcell (February 26, 1800 – July 4, 1883) was an Irish-born American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as bishop of Cincinnati in Ohio from 1833 to his death in 1883, and he was elevated to the rank of archbishop in 1850. He formed the basis of Father Ferrand, the Ohio-based "Irish by birth, French by ancestry" character in the prologue of Willa Cather's historical novel Death Comes for the Archbishop who goes to Rome asking for a bishop for New Mexico Territory.

John Baptist Purcell was born at Mallow, County Cork, in Ireland on February 26, 1800, the son of Edward and Johanna Purcell who gave their children all the advantages of the education attainable at a time when the penal laws were less rigorously enforced. Purcell decided to seek higher education in the United States. Landing at Baltimore, Maryland, he soon obtained a teacher's certificate at Asbury College, a Methodist college in that city. He spent a year giving lessons as private tutor in some of the prominent families of Baltimore. His ambition, however, was to become a priest.

On June 20, 1820, he entered Mount St. Mary's Seminary, Emmitsburg, Maryland. His knowledge of the classics helped him take charge of important classes in the college, and at the same time prepare himself for the priesthood by the study of philosophy, theology, and other branches of the ecclesiastical curriculum.

After three years' study in the seminary he received tonsure and minor orders from Archbishop Ambrose Maréchal, of Baltimore, at the close of 1823. On March 1, 1824, in the company of Simon Gabriel Bruté, one of the professors of the seminary, afterwards first bishop of Vincennes, he sailed for Europe to complete his studies in the Sulpician Seminaries of Issy and Paris.

On May 26, 1826, Purcell was ordained to the priesthood, along with 299 other seminarians, in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris by Archbishop Hyacinthe-Louis de Quelen.

After his ordination, Purcell 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 appointment as Bishop of Cincinnati, Ohio, to succeed Edward Fenwick.

On March 8, 1833, Pope Gregory VI appointed Purcell as bishop of Cincinnati. He received notice of his consecration in August 1833. Purcell was consecrated in the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore on October 13, 1833, by Archbishop James Whitfield. This was the same day as the opening of the Third Provincial Council of Baltimore, a meeting of bishops from around the United States.

After the end of the Council, Purcell traveled from Baltimore by stage to Wheeling in Virginia and then to Cincinnati, Ohio. Purcell reached his destination on November 14, 1833, to be greeted by Bishops Benedict Joseph Flaget, John Baptist Mary David and, Frederick Rese. Purcell was installed as bishop at Saint Peter's Cathedral in Cincinnati by Flaget.