Denis Mary Bradley


Denis Mary Bradley was an Irish-American Roman Catholic priest, who became the first Bishop of Manchester, New Hampshire. He is credited with co-founding Saint Anselm College with Abbot Hilary Pfrängle in 1889 as Bradley had persistently requested the Benedictine monks of Saint Mary's Abbey in Newark, New Jersey to establish a Roman Catholic college in the Diocese of Manchester. A faculty office building on the campus he helped found is named in his honor as Bradley House.

Life

Shortly after his father's death, when Bradley was eight years old, his mother and the family of five emigrated from Ireland to the United States of America, settling in Manchester, New Hampshire. In 1863, after attending the local schools, he attended the Holy Cross College, Worcester, Massachusetts and graduated in June 1867. He was then enrolled as an ecclesiastical student at St. Joseph's Seminary, Troy, New York, where he was ordained priest on 3 June 1871.
Shortly after this he was located at Portland, Maine, under Bishop Bacon, and subsequently under Bishop Healy, by whom he was appointed rector of the cathedral and chancellor of the diocese. In June, 1881, he was made pastor of St. Joseph's, Manchester, which became his cathedral when he was consecrated first Bishop of the new See of Manchester, 11 June 1884.
He was the first alumnus of St. Joseph's Seminary of Troy, New York, to be raised to the episcopacy. In the rural parts of New Hampshire there were many scattered Catholics, and his first efforts were directed towards providing for them. He held the first synod of the diocese 24 October 1886.