59 Facts About Leonard Neale

Leonard Neale was an American Catholic prelate and Jesuit who became the second Archbishop of Baltimore and the first Catholic bishop to be ordained in the United States.

Leonard Neale was born in the British Province of Maryland to a prominent family that produced many Catholic leaders, including his brothers, Francis and Charles.

Leonard Neale was educated in Europe, where he entered the Society of Jesus in 1767.

Leonard Neale then volunteered to become a missionary in a Dutch colony in South America in 1779.

Leonard Neale spent four years there, before becoming discouraged by the resistance from both the European colonists and indigenous people to his proselytism.

Leonard Neale returned to Maryland, where he rejoined his former Jesuit colleagues from Europe at St Thomas Manor.

In 1793, Leonard Neale was appointed pastor of Old St Joseph's and Old St Mary's Churches in Philadelphia.

Leonard Neale served as president of Georgetown College in Washington from 1799 to 1806, where his imposition of strict discipline helped cause declining student enrollment.

Leonard Neale supported the restoration of the Jesuits in the United States, which occurred in 1805.

Leonard Neale faced several conflicts with lay trustees, one resulting in a temporary schism at a parish in Charleston, South Carolina.

Leonard Neale's ancestors included Captain James Neale, who arrived from England in 1637 after receiving a royal grant of 2,000 acres in the future Port Tobacco.

Two of Leonard Neale's brothers died early, while the four surviving brothers became Catholic priests.

Reverend Charles Leonard Neale served as superior of the American Jesuit community.

Anne Leonard Neale wanted to further her sons' education in a Catholic college in Maryland, but the provincial government had banned them.

Leonard Neale was forced to send them all to the College of English Jesuits at Saint-Omer in France.

Leonard Neale left for Saint-Omer in 1758 at age 12, where he achieved a good academic record.

Leonard Neale moved to Bruges in Flanders in the Austrian Netherlands to continue his studies when the college relocated there in 1762.

Immediately after his ordination, Leonard Neale returned to the College of Liege to join the faculty there.

Leonard Neale then moved to England, along with the rest of the English Jesuits.

Leonard Neale spent the next four years ministering to a small Catholic congregation in Hardwick, County Durham.

Leonard Neale was later able to return to Liege, where he spent two years, then to Brussels.

Leonard Neale spent his final time in Europe working as a chaplain at the convent of the Canonesses Regular of the Holy Sepulchre in Bruges.

Leonard Neale initially worked on evangelizing the European colonists, but they rejected his attempts and barred him from building a chapel in the colony.

Leonard Neale then turned his attention to the conversion of the indigenous people who lived in the forests.

Leonard Neale found that proselytizing the indigenous people was equally difficult.

On one occasion, Leonard Neale was passing through a tribal village when he saw a small child who was dying.

Leonard Neale baptized the boy, who then miraculously recovered from his illness.

Leonard Neale's voyage was delayed briefly when the Royal Navy seized his ship near Demerara during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War.

Once back in Maryland, Leonard Neale started serving at St Thomas Manor near Chandler's Hope, the family estate.

Leonard Neale attended the first meeting of the Corporation of Roman Catholic Clergymen of Maryland at White Marsh Manor in Bowie, Maryland, in 1783.

Leonard Neale remained an active member of this group in the succeeding years.

In 1793, Carroll and a group of supporters started raising money to fund the establishment of the Academy of Georgetown in present-day Washington, DC Leonard Neale led a group of priests opposed to Carroll's selling corporation land owned to finance the new institution.

In 1793, Leonard Neale volunteered to go to Philadelphia to help the church there during a yellow fever epidemic, despite his own weak health.

Leonard Neale started serving as pastor of both Old St Joseph's Church and Old St Mary's Church.

Leonard Neale himself contracted yellow fever at one point; he survived the illness, but never fully recovered his health.

Leonard Neale convinced her to instead found a religious community in Philadelphia.

Lalor and two other women, with Leonard Neale's assistance, established a small Catholic school for girls in Philadelphia.

In 1796, Leonard Neale faced a challenge of his authority from the lay board of trustees at one of Philadelphia's parishes.

Leonard Neale received a summons to come to Mount Vernon, the Washington estate in Virginia.

Leonard Neale heard his confession and then conditionally baptized him, receiving him into the Catholic Church.

Leonard Neale was consecrated a bishop on December 7,1800, at St Peter's Pro-Cathedral in Baltimore by Carroll, with Reverend Reverend Francis Nagot and Reverend Francis Beeston serving as co-consecrators.

Leonard Neale moved from Philadelphia to Washington to live on the Georgetown campus, as requested by the college board of directors.

Leonard Neale would continue to serve as president of Georgetown after he was named coadjutor bishop of Baltimore in 1800.

Leonard Neale responded by expanding the course of studies at Georgetown, adding philosophy in 1801 as the final course in the full Jesuit curriculum.

Leonard Neale was now able to open a Jesuit novitiate at Georgetown College.

Leonard Neale expanded the course of studies by adding philosophy, the final course in the full Jesuit curriculum.

Leonard Neale suggested to Lalor, his friend from Philadelphia, that she start a religious community to operate a girls school in Washington.

Leonard Neale drew up the rules for the new enclosed religious community.

Leonard Neale received the nuns' simple vows in 1813 and remained their spiritual director for the rest of his life.

When Leonard Neale departed, the college had only 26 lay students and its main building was in disrepair.

Leonard Neale moved off campus to a residence near the Georgetown Visitation Monastery, living there until his death.

When Carroll died, Leonard Neale automatically succeeded him as the second archbishop of Baltimore on December 3,1815.

Leonard Neale received the pallium from Pope Pius VII in 1816.

Leonard Neale was age 70 when he became archbishop and his already fragile health had deteriorated further.

The board appointed Browne as pastor at St Mary's and dismissed Cloriviere, defying Leonard Neale, who was now archbishop.

Gallagher argued that Leonard Neale had no authority to appoint a new pastor without his assent, and that doing so was causing a schism.

Leonard Neale then placed St Mary's under an interdict, prohibiting Catholic rites at the church.

Leonard Neale appealed Litta's decision to Pius VII, who reversed it on July 6,1817, a few weeks after Leonard Neale's death.

Leonard Neale was buried in the crypt of the chapel at the Visitation Monastery.