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Roman Catholic prelate second bishop of Boston
Benedict Joseph Fenwick was born near Leonardtown, St. Marys County, Maryland, one of the ten children of Colonel Richard Fenwick and his wife Dorothy, daughter of Joseph Plowden of “Resurrection Manor. ” He was a great-grandson of Cuthbert Fenwick, who came to this country with Leonard Calvert in 1634. In his eleventh year he entered Georgetown
In his eleventh year he entered Georgetown College where he distinguished himself as a student, and, after finishing his course in philosophy.
In the hope of increasing his staff, he gave instruction personally to candidates for the priesthood, and in 1827 had the satisfaction of ordaining two of his pupils, one of whom, James Fitton, carried on zealous missionary labors for many years in all parts of New England.
On August of 1834, the convent was destroyed by an anti-Catliolic mob. That the truths of the Church might be "explained, and moderately, but firmly defended, ” he started in Boston The Jesuit, or Catholic Sentinel, one of the earliest Catholic papers in the country, the first number of which appeared on September 5, 1829.
Its name was several times changed, and it was finally called The Pilot. Under his patronage Sisters of Charity came to Boston in 1832, opened a free school for girls, and established St. Vincent’s Orphan Asylum. As the exodus from Ireland brought many immigrants to Boston, he urged them to go forth into other sections of New England, and in 1834, having secured a half township of land in Aroostook County, Maine, he established there the Catholic colony of Benedicta.
In 1842 he received from Father Fitton land in Worcester upon which the latter had erected a school for the higher education of young men. This the Bishop put under the care of the Jesuits and it became the College of the Holy Cross. Such was the energy and success of his administration that at his death the diocese contained some forty churches with attendant priests, and from it had been carved the Diocese of Hartford, which comprised Connecticut and Rhode Island.
The long period of suffering that preceded his death he bore with fortitude and cheerfulness, and not having been able to lie down for weeks, he died sitting in his chair.
From the start he devoted much attention to the education of the young, opening a Sunday-school in the Cathedral, and when the latter was enlarged in 1828, establishing a day school in the basement, which was conducted by his ecclesiastical students. He moved the Ursuline Convent to a more suitable site in Charlestown, where the nuns opened an academy for girls.
He had also to encounter an intense prejudice against Catholicism on the part of Protestants.
He was an accomplished scholar, well informed in widely different fields, but of practical rather than speculative turn of mind.
He was a man of great personal charm, a brilliant conversationalist, witty and humorous. Firm and uncompromising in his convictions, he was nevertheless humble, tender-hearted, and charitable toward all. He was an accomplished scholar, well informed in widely different fields, but of practical rather than speculative turn of mind. His business ability was of a high order, and he possessed many of the qualities that make an able statesman.
