author
James Gibbons
1834–1921
A towering figure in American Catholic life, he led the Archdiocese of Baltimore for more than four decades and became one of the best-known churchmen in the United States. His writing, especially The Faith of Our Fathers, helped explain Catholic belief to a wide general audience.
1 Audiobook
The Faith of Our Fathers
by James Gibbons
About the author
Born in Baltimore on July 23, 1834, to Irish immigrant parents, he spent part of his childhood in Ireland before returning to the United States as a young man. He studied for the priesthood at St. Charles College and St. Mary's Seminary in Maryland and was ordained in 1861.
His rise in the Church was rapid: he became Apostolic Vicar of North Carolina in 1868, then bishop of Richmond, and in 1877 archbishop of Baltimore. In 1886 he was made a cardinal, becoming the second American to receive that honor. Over a long public career, he was widely seen as a leading spokesman for American Catholicism and as someone who worked to show that Catholic faith and American civic life could fit together.
He also reached many readers through his books, most famously The Faith of Our Fathers. James Gibbons died in Baltimore on March 24, 1921, after serving as archbishop for more than forty years, and he remains one of the most influential Catholic leaders in U.S. history.