Galberry, Thomas
GALBERRY, THOMAS
Bishop, first provincial of the augustinians in the U.S.; b. Naas, County Kildare, Ireland, May 28, 1833; d. New York City, Oct. 10, 1878. In 1836 the Galberry family came from Ireland to live in Philadelphia, Pa. Thomas graduated in 1851 from Villanova College (now University), Villanova, Pa., and joined the Augustinian Order in Jan. 1852. After ordination (Dec. 20, 1856) by Bp. John Neumann of Philadelphia, Galberry served as pastor, between 1858 and 1872, in Havertown, Pa.; Troy, N.Y.; and Lawrence, Mass. For the next three years he was president of Villanova College (1872–75). Meanwhile, in 1866, he was appointed superior (commissary general) of the Augustinian Order in the U.S., and in 1874 he was elected the first provincial of the newly erected province of St. Thomas of Villanova. Not long afterward Galberry was appointed to the See of Hartford, Conn.; he was consecrated March 19, 1876. His episcopate, like his life, was brief but filled with energetic labor; he laid the cornerstones of numerous churches and religious institutions and founded (1876) the diocesan newspaper, Connecticut Catholic (now the Catholic Transcript ). While on a journey in 1878, Galberry became ill in New York and died suddenly.
Bibliography: t. purcell, "Thomas Galberry," Tagastan 5 (1941) 5–14.
[a. j. ennis]