Early life and education

Samuel Eccleston was born on June 27, 1801 near Chestertown, Maryland, to Samuel and Martha (née Hyson) Eccleston. ^[1] His father, who had three children from a previous marriage, was an Episcopalian clergyman. After Samuel Eccleston senior died, Martha Eccleston married a Catholic man. ^{[2] [3]}

The family sent Samuel Eccleston to St. Mary's College in Baltimore, which was staffed by priests from the Sulpician Order. Inspired by how one of his teachers at St. Mary's faced death, Eccleston entered the Catholic Church on May 29, 1819.^[4] Despite the vigorous protests from his family and friend, Eccleston decided to enter the priesthood, enrolling at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore in July 1819.^[1][5]

Ordination and ministry

Eccleston was ordained a priest by Archbishop Ambrose Maréchal on April 24, 1825.^[4] After entering the Sulpician Order later that year, his superiors sent Eccleston to study at the Grand Seminary of Saint-Sulpice in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France.^[6] After visiting England and Ireland, Eccleston returned to Baltimore in July 1827. The Sulpicians then assigned him as a faculty member and vice president of St. Mary's Seminary. Two years later they named him president of the seminary.^[1][5]

Archbishop of Baltimore

On March 4, 1834, Pope Gregory XVI appointed Eccleston Coadjutor Archbishop of Baltimore and Titular Archbishop of Thermae Basilicae.^[4] He received his episcopal consecration on the following September 14 from Archbishop James Whitfield, with Bishops Benedict Joseph Flaget, S.S., and Francis Patrick Kenrick serving as co-consecrators, in the old Baltimore Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary.^[7]

Upon Archbishop Whitfield's death on October 19, 1834, Eccleston succeeded him as the fifth archbishop of Baltimore. At the age of 34, he became the youngest cleric to become archbishop in the archdiocese's history. In 1835, the Holy See appointed Eccleston Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, an office which he held until the appointment of Richard Vincent Whelan in 1840. Because Richmond was thus a subordinate diocese, Eccleston received the pallium, a vestment worn by metropolitan bishops, on November 1, 1835, as his predecessor had six years earlier in 1829.^[6]

Eccleston encouraged religious orders to establish houses in his diocese, particularly those who could provide social services to the growing number of Catholic immigrants in the industrializing cities. The Sisters of the Visitation increased the number of their academies in the city and archdiocese, the Brothers of St. Patrick came to direct a trade school near Baltimore, and the Redemptorists cared particularly for German-speaking immigrants.^[5] The Brothers of the Christian Schools founded Calvert Hall School, (later to become Calvert Hall College, then Calvert Hall College high school) in 1845, at the northwest corner of West Saratoga and North Charles Street, on the site of the old St. Peter's Procathedral, (first Catholic congregation in the City from 1770 to 1841). St. Charles College (a pre-seminary) was established in 1848 in Howard County, Maryland, on land donated by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, near his family estate of "Doughoregan Manor" (later moved to near Catonsille and Arbutus, Maryland in southwest Baltimore County in 1911).^[4]

With his focus on the arriving immigrants, Bishop Eccleston was less supportive of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, a religious community of African American women. Despite the lack of an appointed spiritual director from 1843 to 1847, the sisters maintained their religious practices and community life. Although the institute was approved by Pope Gregory XVI on 2 October 1831, by October 1847 Eccleston was determined to disband the community, but was dissuaded by Redemptorist Father Thaddeus Anwander, who had been directed by his superior, John Neumann to see to the sisters. At Anwander's request, he was appointed to fill the long vacant position of spiritual adviser.^[8]

Between 1837 and 1849, bishop Eccleston held five Provincial Councils of Baltimore; he even invited the exiled Pope Pius IX, (1792-1878, served 1846-1878), to preside over the Seventh Provincial Council in 1849.^[6] Several new churches were erected during his administration as well.^[5]

Eccleston died in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., aged only 49. He was buried and entombed in the crypt (with predecessors and successors) of the old Baltimore Cathedral on "Cathedral Hill" in the Mount Vernon-Belvedere neighborhood north of downtown Baltimore.-^[4]