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January 4, 1866
CARDINAL HAS NEWFOUNDLAND CONNECTIONS
Father Diomede Falconio, O.F.M (a Parish Priest and Vicar General of Harbour Grace Diocese and later, Cardinal) was ordained a Franciscan priest, the Order of Friars Minor, by Bishop of Buffalo, John Timon, January 4, 1866.
Following ordination he became a professor of philosophy at St. Bonaventure's College and Seminary, Alleghany, N.Y., 1865-1868; 1869-1871; president, 1868-1869. He then decided to embrace the missionary life.
He served as Administrator, Chancellor, and Vicar General of Diocese of Harbor Grace, (now the Diocese of Grand Fall’s) 1871-1881. The opposition of the Benevolent Irish Society (BIS) in Harbour Grace to the appointment of an Italian bishop to the diocese of Harbor Grace was largely responsible for his being recalled to the United States. The BIS were determined that a priest with Irish roots take the office of bishop of the diocese.
Falconio was then assigned missionary work in New York and Connecticut, 1882-1883; returned to Italy in 1883.
He was elected bishop of Lacedonia, Italy, July 11, 1892. He returned to North America in as the First apostolic delegate in Canada, August 3, 1899.
He was later named Apostolic delegate in the United States of America, September 30, 1902. He was created cardinal priest in the consistory of November 27, 1911.
He died February 8, 1917, Rome. Buried in the Franciscan church of Pescocostanzo.
Cardinal Falconio’s official portrait by Thomas Eakins in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., features him in a grey soutane instead of the more traditional red soutane worn by secular cardinals. Friars Minor were commonly known as the Grey Friars from the colour of their habit. Franciscan Cardinals have their robes of this hue.
(Rome did not concede to the demands of the BIS, rather than an Irish priest Rome named Ronald MacDonald from an old Scottish family, a native of Pictou County, Nova Scotia as Bishop of Harbour Grace. He was the first Nova Scotian born priest to be named a bishop in Newfoundland. He served the diocese of Harbour Grace from August 21, 1881 - September 3, 1906
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