FENWICK, EDWARD DOMINIC

Missionary, first bishop of Cincinnati, OH; b. St. Mary's County, MD, Aug. 19, 1768; d. Wooster, OH, Sept. 26, 1832. His father was Ignatius Fenwick, descendant of Cuthbert Fenwick of Maryland; his mother was Sarah Taney, the daughter of Michael and Sarah (Brooke) Taney. Edward received his early education privately on the Fenwick manor and entered Holy Cross College, conducted by English Dominicans at Bornheim, Belgium, where he completed the humanities course in 1788. He entered the Dominican Order and was professed on March 26, 1790. He next studied theology and was ordained probably on Feb. 23, 1793. When he had been teaching at Holy Cross College for a year, the English Dominicans fled to England because of the French Revolution, leaving Fenwick in charge. His American citizenship did not prevent his imprisonment and probably did not influence his later release. On regaining his freedom he joined the English Dominicans at Carshalton, near London, and soon received permission to establish a house of English Dominicans in the U.S. He returned to the U.S. in November 1804.

On the advice of Bp. John Carroll, Fenwick visited Kentucky in early 1805 to investigate the possibilities of a Dominican foundation there. He gave a favorable report and was appointed superior of the incipient Dominican province of St. Joseph in July 1806. Near Springfield, KY, he purchased the John Waller plantation where he began a building program which, on its completion in 1812, included St. Rose's Church and Priory and the College of St. Thomas of Aquin. In 1807, however, he was replaced as superior at his own request; thereafter he devoted himself to missionary work. He traveled throughout Kentucky and in 1808 began his apostolate in Ohio, where he concentrated his efforts after 1816. In 1818, he and Father Nicholas D. Young blessed the first church in Ohio, near Somerset, and from there he served Catholics throughout the state. His missionary wanderings on horseback earned him the titles of "itinerant preacher" and "Apostle of Ohio" and eventually led to his appointment as the first bishop of Cincinnati.

He was consecrated at St. Rose Church, Springfield, KY, on Jan. 13, 1822, by Bp. Benedict Flaget, and, with other Dominican priests, reached Cincinnati in March. In May 1823, feeling the need of clergy and deprived of the Dominicans in Kentucky, Fenwick left for Rome to seek the establishment of a Dominican province in Ohio. Final arrangements concerning the new province were not made until 1828, when the Dominicans of Ohio and Kentucky were united under Fenwick. After his return from Europe in March 1825, Fenwick had sufficient resources to build St. Peter in Chains Cathedral in Cincinnati. In 1829, St. Francis Xavier Seminary was organized and became part of the Athenaeum (a corporation having direction of the seminaries of the archdiocese), which opened in 1831. The same year the first issue of his diocesan paper, the Catholic Telegraph–Register, appeared. By this time Fenwick had 24 priests and 22 churches in his diocese. The next year, while returning from his annual visitation through Ohio and Michigan, he died of cholera at Wooster, Ohio. He was buried there, but his remains were later transferred to the Cincinnati cathedral and finally to St. Joseph's Cemetery.

Bibliography: v. f. o'daniel, The Right Rev. Edward Dominic Fenwick, OP (2d ed. Washington 1921). j. h. lamott, History of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, 1821–1921 (New York 1921). m.j. hynes, History of the Diocese of Cleveland 1847–1952 (Cleveland 1953).

[j. sauter]