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March 29, 1868
Bishop John T. Mullock
On this day (29 March 1868) the talk in the town is all about the death of the Catholic Bishop of St. John's, John Thomas Mullock.
John Thomas Mullock was born in 1807 at Limerick, Ireland. After long service as a Franciscan priest in Ireland, particularly at Ennis, he was appointed in 1847 as coadjutor to Bishop Michael Anthony Fleming of St. John's, Newfoundland, with the right of succession, and was consecrated Bishop on 27 December, 1847, at Rome. In July, 1850, he succeeded Bishop Fleming.
The church made great progress in Newfoundland during the episcopate of Dr. Mullock, a new diocese— Harbour Grace — being erected. The splendid Cathedral (now Basilica) of St. John's, begun in 1841, was consecrated on 9 September, 1855.
Mullock added substantially to the Roman Catholic institutions, building a new palace, 11 convents, numerous churches, founding St. Michael’s Orphanage, and on December 1, 1856, opening St. Bonaventure’s College. (see http://www.stjohnsarchdiocese.nf.ca/archive_moment9.asp )
He encouraged the ordination of native priests.
He frequently intervened in the political sphere, especially in the period leading up to the granting of Responsible Government in 1855. He also fought to protect the system of Catholic education which had evolved under Bishop Michael Anthony Fleming’s episcopate. After political violence during the 1861 election, Mullock’s outspokenness on many issues declined considerably over the earlier period.
Long before the first attempts to lay a submarine cable across the Atlantic he was (1857), the first to publicly propose the feasibility of connecting Europe with America by means of submarine telegraph. (see http://www.stjohnsarchdiocese.nf.ca/archive_moment68.asp )
He was a frequent contributor to the periodical literature of the day, and took an active part in the Irish literary movement of the 1840’s. He was the first to bring before the English-speaking world the life and works of the great Saint Alphonsus Maria Liguori, publishing his "Life" at Dublin in 1846, and in the following year a translation of the saint's "History of Heresies and their Refutation". In 1847 there appeared at Dublin his "Short History of the Irish Franciscan Province" translated from the Latin work of Francis Ward; he also wrote "The Cathedral of St. John's, Newfoundland and its consecration" (Dublin, 1856).
In a series of Two lectures on Newfoundland given in St John’s in 1860 he revealed his faith in his adopted land: “The present generation in Newfoundland . . . leaves a mighty inheritance to their children, and we are forming the character of a future nation.”
He was also, in 1859, the inspiration behind the construction of the Episcopal Library now the home of one of the oldest collection of books in the province. See more http://www.stjohnsarchdiocese.nf.ca/archive_moment79.asp
On 29 March 1868, Bishop Mullock died at the Episcopal Palace at the age of 62. He was buried underneath the main altar of the Cathedral.
Archival Fonds: Bishop John Thomas Mullock fonds
Recommended Reading: Ecclesiastical History of Newfoundland, volume 2 / by Archbishop Michael F. Howley, edited by Brother Joseph B. Darcy, associate editor, John F. O'Mara.
For more information on this and other related subjects contact the Archives of the R.C. Archdiocese. www.stjohnsarchdiocese.nf.ca
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Larry Dohey
Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s
P.O. Box 1363
St. John’s, NL
A1C 5M3
709-726-3660
E-mail: archives@nf.aibn.com
We hope that you have enjoyed this archival moment.
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