KENRICK, PETER RICHARD. - First archbishop of St. Louis; theologian and student of ecclesiastical history. Born in Dublin on August 4, 1806, in 1833 he emigrated to the United States, where in Philadelphia he was vicar general of the diocese. In 1841 he was elected bishop and appointed as coadjutor to Bishop Rosati of St. Louis, whom he succeeded in 1847. The immense diocese, at his suggestion, was dismembered into 5 other dioceses and St. Louis became a metropolitan see (1847).
To him is due the ecclesiastical and administrative organization of the new province, which subsequently, but always under his episcopate, was further divided into 16 other suffragan sees. He fought for the freedom of Catholics, and above all he successfully opposed the "Drake Constitution," which in Missouri imposed on Catholics an oath contrary to their conscience. He studied with passion and scientific interest the vicissitudes of the Holy House of Loreto. He took part in the Vatican Council and was among the opponents of the definition of papal infallibility, submitting however once the definition had been made. His publications extend over various fields, from the question of the validity of Anglican ordinations to the meditations-commentary on the Litanie Lauretane, to the various fields of pastoral activity. Among others: Concio Petri Richardi K. archiepiscopi S. Ludovici in Conc. Vaticano habenda at non habita (Naples 1870); An inside view of the Vatican Council (New York 1871); The holy house of Loreto; or an explanation of the historical evidence of its miraculous translation (new ed., Philadelphia 1876); Month of Mary on the litanies of the Madonna (ibid. 1840); The earliest of Anglican Ordinations examined (ibid. 1841).
Bibliography4 works
Enrico L. Hoffmann