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Concept
Edward Fitzgerald (bishop)
Summary
Edward Mary Fitzgerald (October 28, 1833—February 21, 1907) was an Irish-born American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Little Rock in Arkansas from 1867 until his death in 1907.
Edward Fitzgerald was born in Limerick to James and Joanna (née Pratt) Fitzgerald. He was one of eight children one of whom, Joseph, also became a priest. In 1849 he and his parents immigrated to the United States in the aftermath of the Great Famine of Ireland. He attended St. Mary's of the Barrens Seminary at Perryville, Missouri, from 1850 to 1852. Fitzgerald completed his theological studies at Mount St. Mary's Seminary of the West in Cincinnati, Ohio and at Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
Fitzgerald was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop John Baptist Purcell on August 22, 1857. His first and only assignment was pastor of St. Patrick's Parish in Columbus where he healed a divisive ethnic schism between the Irish and German immigrants. He gained his American citizenship in 1859.
During the American Civil War, Fitzgerald organized an Irish-American military company called the Montgomery Guards that fought on the Union side. He frequently visited Camp Chase in Columbus to minister to Confederate Army prisoners.
On April 24, 1866, Fitzgerald was appointed the second bishop of the Diocese of Little Rock by Pope Pius IX. Fitzgerald initially refused the appointment, but was commanded by the Holy See to accept it in December 1866. He received his episcopal consecration on February 3, 1867, from Archbishop Purcell, with Bishops John Lynch and Sylvester Rosecrans serving as co-consecrators, at St. Patrick's Church. At age 33, he was the youngest member of the American hierarchy.
Fitzgerald presided over a period of great growth in the Little Rock Diocese. Arriving in Arkansas by steamboat in March 1867, he found four parishes, five priests, and 1,600 Catholics; by the time of his death in 1907, there were 41 churches with resident priests, 32 missions, 60 priests, and 20,000 Catholics.
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