Installation of Bishop Thomas Grace: 1896
Thomas
Grace, born 1841, in County Wexford, Ireland was the second Bishop
of the Sacramento Diocese. He was educated at Saint Peter's college in
Wexford, then All Hallows Missionary College, where Eugene O'Connell
had been dean. Ordained a priest for the American missions in 1876, he
arrived in California the same year he was ordained! As a young priest,
he traveled the area of Northern California by horse.
For twenty years he served or built churches in Nevada and California. He was the pastor of Eureka, Carson City, Marysville and the pro-Cathedral, Saint Rose of Lima, in Sacramento, which used to be at 7th and K Streets.
When
Patrick Manogue, the first Catholic Bishop of Sacramento died, Thomas Grace
was appointed to take his place march 20, 1896. The
photograph at right shows Thomas Grace arriving by carriage, with
a Franciscan friend, to be consecrated Bishop of Sacramento by Archbishop
Reardon of San Francisco.
Grace was a careful student of Scripture and the Fathers of the church. He prepared his talks with great care. He prayed daily and read the kind of literature that would help him to raise his heart and mind to God, and to serve his flock more readily.
Each day at 4 in the afternoon, Grace walked in the Capitol Park, not far from the Cathedral. Green was his favorite color and he joked that he would send the Pope a green vest on Saint Patrick’s Day. The man had a sense of humor.
For 25 years Thomas Grace was the Bishop of Sacramento. He was a tireless worker and often sick, yet he lived to be 80 years old! He died December 27, 1921.
Copyright © Wm. Breault, SJ 1997
