Rev. Denis Mary Bradley was an American Roman Catholic bishop. He is noted for being one of the co-founders of the Saint Anselm College and also for establishing a Roman Catholic college in the Diocese of Manchester.
Background
Denis Mary Bradley was born on February 25, 1846 in County Kerry, Ireland, of sturdy, laboring parentage. On the death of his father, his mother in 1854 brought her young brood to Manchester, New Hampshire, where she maintained a humble home by taking in boarders and working as a seamstress.
Education
Bradley's schooling, aside from the religious training of the home, was left to New Hampshire's pioneer Catholic master, Thomas Cochran. In 1864, Bradley matriculated at Holy Cross College in Worcester, receiving his bachelor's degree three years later from Georgetown College, as Holy Cross was not chartered to give degrees.
He was no "poor scholar, " for his mother by scrimping had hoarded three hundred golden dollars, then at high premium, to pay his modest expenses. Inspired with a religious calling, the young man entered St. Joseph's Seminary at Troy, New York, where after four years in cloistered study of theology, he was ordained on July 3, 1871, by Bishop Bernard McQuade of Rochester.
Career
Bradley's superior, Rt. Reverend David W. Bacon, first bishop of Portland, named the young neophyte a curate at the cathedral; for him a pleasant location because his sister was prioress of the neighboring Mercy Convent. Interested in Father Mathew's temperance movement, Bradley won the friendship of Neal Dow, who fathered the Maine prohibition law.
In 1879, Bradley said the first Mass in the State Reform School, which evidenced his popularity with the non-Catholics of Portland even more than did their generosity in subscribing a share of the purse to give the priest his first vacation. After his return from abroad, he was appointed pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Manchester by Bishop James A. Healy.
During the French-Canadian influx into New England, Manchester was separated from the Portland diocese, in 1884, and was given its own episcopal see. Nominated by the New England bishops, Bradley was appointed to the new diocese and consecrated by the saintly Archbishop John J. Williams of Boston. The youngest bishop in America, Bradley was well fitted for the appointment. He knew and loved the state. His sermons, however, simple and sincere, touched his hearers.
Bishop Bradley died in Manchester, on December 13, 1903, at the age of 57.
Religion
On April 18, 1884, Pope Leo XIII appointed Fr Bradley, the first bishop of Manchester. He was consecrated in his cathedral church, in Manchester, on June 11, 1884, by the Most Rev Archbishop John Joseph Williams of Boston, at the age of thirty-eight years, four months and six days, thus being the youngest person in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States to hold so exalted a position.
Personality
Of medium height and slender build, he was of a rigorous constitution. This was well, for journeyings to and ministrations in every scattered hamlet tested his metal and vitality. He was gracious and dignified, meeting the world with a sweet smile and a bright eye. Though of deep voice, he was no orator, nor was he a scholar.