Frederick Charles Hopkins was an English

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

and

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

British Honduras British Honduras was a Crown colony on the east coast of Central America — specifically located on the southern edge of the Yucatan Peninsula from 1783 to 1964, then a self-governing colony — renamed Belize from June 1973

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

, at the turn of the 20th century.

Missionary bishop

Frederick C. Hopkins was born 12 December 1844 in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. He entered the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

in September 1868 and was ordained a priest on 23 September 1877. He arrived on the British Honduras mission in January 1888. He became Superior of the mission in 1892 and

Vicar General A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop or archbishop of a diocese or an archdiocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vica ...

in 1893. On the demise of Bishop

Salvatore di Pietro Salvatore di Pietro, (15 June 1830 – 23 August 1898) was an Italian Bishop (Catholic Church), Bishop in the Catholic Church. He served as the first Vicar Apostolic of Belize from 1893 to 1898. He is widely regarded as the most important figure i ...

, Hopkins was made

Vicar Apostolic A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...

of British Honduras on 17 August 1899. He was consecrated bishop in St. Francis Xavier College Church in

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on 5 November 1899. His

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

parish was Holy Redeemer in Belize City. In 1910, when the

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motherhouse in

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was no longer able to send sisters to Belize, Hopkins obtained permission from

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and they opened an independent motherhouse in Belize. Then in 1913 Hopkins welcomed the Sisters of the Catholic Apostolate (

Pallottines The Pallottines, officially named the Society of the Catholic Apostolate (), abbreviated SAC, is a Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right for men in the Roman Catholic Church, founded in 1835 by the Roman Catholic priest Saint Vincent Pa ...

) to Belize, to labor first in

Corozal Town Corozal is a town in Belize, capital of Corozal District. Corozal is located about 84 miles north of Belize City, and 9 miles from the border with Mexico. The population of Corozal, according to the main results of the 2010 census, is 9,871. Co ...

and

Benque Viejo Benque Viejo del Carmen ("Benque") is the westernmost town in Belize, by road west and south of Belize City, at the Guatemalan border. San Ignacio lies 13 km to the east and Melchor de Mencos just across the border. The Mopan River runs alon ...

.Woods, Charles M. Sr., et al. ''Years of Grace: The History of Roman Catholic Evangelization in Belize: 1524-2014''. (Belize: Roman Catholic Diocese of Belize City-Belmopan, 2015), pp. 197, 163, 174.

Writer

Before becoming bishop, Hopkins was editor of ''The Angelus'', the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

newspaper for British Honduras (later "

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

"), and chronicled the early history of the mission. Much of what he wrote was from his own experience, as of the need to "get out of the pitpan and pull it up the raging waters." While bishop he wrote ''The Catholic Church in British Honduras (1851-1918)''. On 9 April 1923, Hopkins died when a coastal boat that he was travelling in sank, taking his life and that of two

sisters A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to r ...

headed with him to the Corozal mission. “Episode of the North: The E.M.L. sinks” (April 1984). ''The Christian Herald'', p. 8.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopkins, Frederick C. 1844 births 1923 deaths Clergy from Birmingham, West Midlands 19th-century English Jesuits 20th-century English Jesuits Jesuit bishops English Roman Catholic missionaries Roman Catholic missionaries in Belize 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Belize Belizean Jesuits Jesuit missionaries English Roman Catholic writers British expatriate bishops Roman Catholic bishops of Belize City–Belmopan