1. Timothy Clement Smyth was an Irish born 19th century bishop of the Catholic Church in the United States.
23 Facts About Clement Smyth
1. 2.
Clement Smyth served as the second bishop of the Diocese of Dubuque following the death of Mathias Loras.
3.
Timothy Smyth was born on February 24,1810, in Finlea, County Clare, Ireland.
4.
Clement Smyth initially entered a community of teaching brothers, the Brothers of the Presentation.
5.
Clement Smyth left that community after six years and took the name of Clement when he entered Mount Melleray Abbey in 1838.
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Clement Smyth professed religious vows as a member of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, known as the Trappists.
7.
Clement Smyth was ordained a priest at the abbey on May 29,1841.
8.
Father Clement Smyth founded a school for boys at Mount Melleray and another school developed outside the abbey gates for girls.
9.
Clement Smyth was again appointed prior of the monastery on December 6,1849.
10.
On May 9,1857, Clement Smyth was consecrated by Peter Richard Kenrick, Archbishop of St Louis.
11.
Shortly after his episcopal consecration, Clement Smyth was assigned administrator of the Diocese of Chicago while O'Reagan went to Rome to resign his see.
12.
Clement Smyth had to deal with an apostate priest, Charles Paschal Chiniquy, who had set up a schismatic church in Kankakee, Illinois.
13.
Clement Smyth was shot at as he left the town after he publicly excommunicated Chiniquy.
14.
On that day, Clement Smyth succeeded Loras as the second bishop of Dubuque.
15.
Clement Smyth was known for his deep piety and boundless charity.
16.
Clement Smyth would oversee the continued expansion of the church's presence in Iowa as immigration continued into the state.
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In 1863 Clement Smyth learned of the existence of the pro-Southern Knights of the Golden Circle.
18.
Clement Smyth gave Iowa members who might be Catholic two weeks to withdraw from the organization or be automatically excommunicated.
19.
Clement Smyth preached a stinging sermon after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
20.
That evening Clement Smyth lost his coach house, carriage and horses to an arsonist.
21.
Clement Smyth led the diocese for seven years until his death on September 22,1865.
22.
Clement Smyth was succeeded by John Hennessy, who became Dubuque's first archbishop.
23.
Clement Smyth's body was brought to the cathedral, and reburied in the mortuary chapel.