ALLEN, EDWARD PATRICK

Bishop; b. Lowell, Massachusetts, March 17, 1853; d. Mobile, Alabama, Oct. 21, 1926. The son of John and Mary (Egan) Allen, he attended the public schools of Lowell and Lowell Commercial College before entering Mt. St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he received the Master of Arts (1878). After completing his studies for the priesthood, he was ordained at Emmitsburg on Dec. 17, 1881, by Bishop Thomas A. Becker. Allen first taught at Mt. St. Mary's, then worked for two years in the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts, returning to Emmitsburg in 1884. After serving briefly as vice president and treasurer of the college, he was elected president in June 1885. On Jan. 26, 1897, he was appointed fifth bishop of Mobile (redesignated mobile–birmingham in 1954); he was consecrated by Cardinal James Gibbons in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 16 and installed in his diocese on May 30. During the next 30 years the Catholic population in the diocese increased from 17,000 to 48,000; Allen's administrative ability and sound fiscal policy enabled the diocese to keep pace with this growth by an adequate expansion of clergy, churches, and social services. Particular effort was made in the Negro apostolate through the introduction of the josephite fathers, and significant progress was achieved in the hitherto undeveloped rural areas of the diocese.

Bibliography: Archives, Diocese of Mobile–Birmingham.

[o. h. lipscomb]