Thomas Langdon Grace (November 14, 1814 – February 22, 1897) was an American

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Minister (Christianity), Christian clergy who is an Ordinary (church officer), ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which me ...

who served as the second

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 ...

Bishop of

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, ...

Life

Born in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

, Grace entered the seminary at Cincinnati in 1829, and, the following year, was admitted to the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

at the Priory of St. Rose in Kentucky, where he made his

religious profession In the Catholic Church, a religious profession is the solemn admission of men or women into consecrated life by means of the pronouncement of religious vows, typically the evangelical counsels. Usage The 1983 Code of Canon Law defines the ter ...

on 12 June 1831. In 1837 he went to Rome for further studies, where he was ordained a priest by Cardinal Patrizi on 21 December 1839. He was the first native of South Carolina to be ordained to the priesthood. After his return to the United States in 1844 he ministered first in Kentucky, and afterwards for 13 years in Memphis, Tennessee.

Pope Pius IX Pope Pius IX (; born Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878. His reign of nearly 32 years is the longest verified of any pope in hist ...

appointed Grace to succeed

Joseph Crétin Joseph Crétin (December 19, 1799 – February 22, 1857) was an American Catholic prelate who was the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Saint Paul, Minnesota. Cretin Avenue in St. Paul, Cretin-Derham Hall High School, and Cretin Hall at the Univer ...

as the

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 ...

of the Diocese of Saint Paul in

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

on January 21, 1859, for which he was consecrated on July 24, 1859. He was installed as bishop on July 29, 1859 after a year and a half long period of

sede vacante In the Catholic Church, ''sede vacante'' is the state during which a diocese or archdiocese is without a prelate installed in office, with the prelate's office being the cathedral. The term is used frequently in reference to a papal interre ...

in that see. A capable administrator, he served to organize the diocese, which encompassed all of Minnesota and most of the Dakotas. He focused on education and service both to the Native Americans of the region as well as to the newly-arriving immigrants. In 1876 he welcomed Mother Mary Alfred Moes who founded the Sisters of the Congregation of Our Lady of Lourdes of the Third Order Regular of Saint Francis who established Saint Marys Hospital in Rochester which later became

Mayo Clinic Hospital The Mayo Clinic Hospital – Rochester is a 2,059-bed teaching hospital located in Rochester, Minnesota. It comprises the Saint Marys Campus with its Mayo Eugenio Litta Children's Hospital, as well as its Methodist Campus, forming an integral par ...

. Grace resigned on July 31, 1884, succeeded by

John Ireland John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian-American actor and film director. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia and raised in New York City, he came to prominence with film audiences for his supporting roles i ...

. Shortly after that, he was named the

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Mennith. On September 24, 1889, in recognition of his service as bishop, he was appointed to the titular see of

Siuna Siuna is a county-sized administrative municipality in Nicaragua, located approximately northeast of the capital city of Managua and west of the coastal city and regional capital Puerto Cabezas in the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region ...

, with the personal title of

archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

. Upon his death in Merriam Park on February 22, 1897, Grace's funeral was held at the

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 ...

and he was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Saint Paul.

Legacy

Totino-Grace High School, a Roman Catholic high school in

Fridley, Minnesota Fridley is a city in Anoka County, Minnesota, United States. Its population was 29,590 at the 2020 census. It was first settled as a place named Manomin where Rice Creek flows into the Mississippi river and the Red River Oxcart trail crosses ...

, bears his name. The city of

Graceville, Minnesota Graceville is a city in Big Stone County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 529 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History Graceville was founded in the 1870s by a colony of Catholics and named for Thomas Grace (bishop o ...

was named in his honor.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grace, Thomas 1814 births 1897 deaths Clergy from Charleston, South Carolina American Dominicans Dominican bishops Roman Catholic bishops of Saint Paul 19th-century American Roman Catholic titular archbishops Catholics from South Carolina