Rt. Rev. George Michael Lenihan OSB (11 September 1858 – 10 February 1910) was fifth Catholic Bishop of

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

(1896–1910).

Early life

Lenihan was born in 1858 in London. His post-secondary education was completed at

St Edmund's College, Ware St Edmund's College is a coeducational private day and boarding school in the British public school tradition, set in in Ware, Hertfordshire. Founded in 1568 as a seminary, then a boys' school, it is the oldest continuously operatinga claim ...

and English College. Lenihan "was the first student of the Ramsgate College to be ordained to the

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...

priesthood" during 1882.G H Scholefield (ed), ''A Dictionary of New Zealand Biography'', "Lenihan, George Michael", Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, 1940, Vol 1, pp. 493, 494

Priesthood in Auckland

During the late 1800s, Lenihan started his religious career at

St Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland The Cathedral of Saint Patrick and Saint Joseph (usually known as St Patrick's Cathedral) is a heritage-listed Catholic cathedral church in Auckland CBD, situated on the corner of Federal Street and Wyndham St. It is the mother church of the R ...

and Ponsonby, He then went to the

Star of the Sea Orphanage A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

before becoming the "irremovable rector" in Parnell.

Bishop of Auckland

In the 1890s, Lenihan was a

Coadjutor bishop A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) ("co-assister" in Latin) is a bishop in the Latin Catholic, Anglican and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in administering the diocese. The coa ...

. His bishop tenure started after he succeeded Bishop Luck. Bishop Lenihan died on 23 February 1910.

References

Sources

* E.R. Simmons, ''A Brief History of the Catholic Church in New Zealand'', Catholic Publication Centre, Auckland, 1978. * E.R. Simmons, ''In Cruce Salus, A History of the Diocese of Auckland 1848 - 1980'', Catholic Publication Centre, Auckland 1982.

External links

''Bishop George Michael Lenihan OSB'', Catholic Hierarchy website
(retrieved 12 February 2011) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lenihan, George 1858 births 1910 deaths New Zealand people of Irish descent Roman Catholic bishops of Auckland New Zealand Benedictines Roman Catholic clergy from London Benedictine bishops 19th-century Roman Catholic bishops in New Zealand 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in New Zealand People educated at St Edmund's College, Ware