116 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



crate to the cause, but nine of his nephews served in the United States 

 Army, whom he encouraged by constant correspondence ; and the va- 

 rious charities of the war met from him a ready and liberal response to 

 their calls. Closing his earthly career at the advanced age of eighty- 

 one years, he has left behind him the memory of a useful and spotless 

 life; and by his literary labors he has not only won a title to the grati- 

 tude and respect of his countrymen, but of all who speak and write the 

 English language. 



The Right Rev. John Bernard Fitzpatrick was the son of Irish 

 parents, of humble circumstances but earnest piety, who came over to 

 America in 1805. Born in Boston on the 1st of November, 1812, he 

 owed his early education to the common schools of his native city. He 

 was a pupil successively of the Adams and Boylston Schools, and after- 

 wards for three years of the Boston Latin School. He seems to have 

 been a most exemplary and diligent scholar, having twice received the 

 Franklin medal, besides obtaining several other prizes for excellence in 

 special departments of study. From his earliest youth he was the sub- 

 ject of deep religious impressions, and found his highest satisfaction in 

 the teachings and services of the Church to which his parents belonged. 

 To that church and its ministry he soon resolved to devote his life, and 

 with this view he broke off from his secular studies, and left his home 

 at seventeen years of age to enter the Roman Catholic College at 

 Montreal. After four years of faithful study in that institution, he 

 greatly distinguished himself by the part which he took in a public 

 disputation in four languages, — Latin, Greek, French, and English, — 

 and was immediately thereafter appointed Professor of Rhetoric and 

 Belles-Lettres. In this capacity he spent four years more at Montreal, 

 and thence repaired for the completion of his theological preparation to 

 the great Seminary of St. Sulpice in France. He was connected with 

 this seminary for nearly three years, and was not less devoted or less 

 distinguished as a scholar at Paris than he had been at Boston or Mon- 

 treal. The time had now arrived for him to enter on the practical duties 

 of the ministry. In May, 1839, he received the order of sub-deacon. 

 In December of the same year he was ordained a deacon, and in the 

 following year was promoted to the priesthood. Recrossing the Atlan- 

 tic in November, 1840, he returned at once to his native city, where 

 for a year or two he was occupied with pastoral duties at the Cathedral 

 or at St. Mary's Church. During another year or two, he held the 

 pastorate of East Cambridge. But higher duties soon awaited him. 



