George Lenihan

Background

George Michael Lenihan was born in 1858 in London to Irish parents who died while he was a child.

Education

He then studied philosophy and theology at the English College at Valladolid, Spain.

Career

After four years there he went to Street Edmund"s College, Ware to study for the priesthood for the Westminster Archdiocese. In 1882 when he was sub-deacon, he was invited to accompany Bishop Edmund Luck to New Zealand and on 27 August 1882 he was ordained a priest, ".. being the first student of the Ramsgate College to be ordained to the secular priesthood". When he arrived in Auckland in 1882, Lenihan was appointed as curate to Monsignor Walter McDonald at Street Patrick"s Cathedral, Auckland where he remained for more than three years.

In 1886 he was appointed pastor of Ponsonby, which he found without either church or presbytery.

A new church for Ponsonby was blessed six months later, and opened within the year. Lenihan was also entrusted with the charge of the Star of the Sea Orphanage at Street Mary"son

In 1891 he was appointed as "irremovable rector" of Parnell. In 1895 Lenihan was appointed Coadjutor bishop to Bishop Luck, on whose death (early in 1896) he succeeded as ordinary and was consecrated a bishop on 15 November 1896 at the relatively young age of 38.

In 1899 Lenihan visited Rome and Ireland and secured more priests for the diocese.

He opened Sacred Heart College, Auckland in 1903 and in 1905 undertook the completion of Street Patrick"s Cathedral, Auckland. Lenihan again visited Europe and North America in 1908 when he attended the celebration of the golden jubilee of Pope Pius X and the Eucharistic Congress in London. Bishop Lenihan died on 23 February 1910 in Sydney, Australia.

Achievements

• This was accomplished in 1907, the complete building being dedicated in 1908 by Cardinal Moran, Archbishop of Sydney.

Connections

associate:

Abbot Alcock