{{Short description|Catholic bishop}} {{Infobox Christian leader | type = Bishop | name = Edward Mary Fitzgerald | title = Bishop of Little Rock | image = Bishop Edward Mary Fitzgerald.jpg | alt = | caption = | church = Roman Catholic Church | archdiocese = | diocese = | see = Diocese of Little Rock | term = February 3, 1867&mdash;<br>February 21, 1907 | predecessor = Andrew Byrne | successor = John Baptist Morris <!-- Orders -->| ordination = August 22, 1857 | ordinated_by = | consecration = February 3, 1867 | consecrated_by = John Baptist Purcell | rank = <!-- Personal details --> | birth_date = {{birth date|1833|10|28}} | birth_place = Limerick, County Limerick, Ireland | death_date = {{death date and age|1907|2|21|1833|10|28}} | death_place = Hot Springs, Arkansas, US | previous_post = | honorific_prefix = His Excellency, The Right Reverend | ordained_by = John Baptist Purcell | education = St. Mary's of the Barrens Seminary<br>Mount St. Mary's Seminary of the West <br>Mount St. Mary's College | motto = ''Infirma mundi elegit Deus''<br>(God chose the weak of the world) }} '''Edward Mary Fitzgerald''' (October 28, 1833&mdash;February 21, 1907) was an Irish-born American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Little Rock in Arkansas from 1867 until his death in 1907.

==Biography==

=== Early life === Edward Fitzgerald was born on October 28, 1833, in Limerick, Ireland, to James and Joanna (née Pratt) Fitzgerald. He was one of eight children one of whom, Joseph, also became a priest.<ref>{{cite news|work=Old Limerick Journal Winter 1993|title=The Limerick Bishop who said No to Papal Infallibility|url=http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/limerick%20bishop%20who%20said%20no.pdf}}</ref> In 1849, the family immigrated to the United States due to the Great Famine of Ireland.<ref name="arkansas">{{cite news|work=Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture|title=Edward Mary Fitzgerald (1833–1907)|url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=1644#}}</ref> Deciding to become a priest, Fitzgerald attended St. Mary's of the Barrens Seminary at Perryville, Missouri, from 1850 to 1852. Fitzgerald completed his theological studies at Mount St. Mary's Seminary of the West in Cincinnati, Ohio and at Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Maryland.<ref name="catholic">{{cite news|work=Catholic Encyclopedia|title=Little Rock|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09295a.htm}}</ref>

=== Priesthood === Fitzgerald was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati by Archbishop John Baptist Purcell in Cincinnati on August 22, 1857.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bishop Edward Fitzgerald [Catholic-Hierarchy] |url=https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bfite.html |access-date=2025-09-25 |website=www.catholic-hierarchy.org}}</ref> His first, and only pastoral assignment. was pastor of St. Patrick's Parish in Columbus, Ohio, where he mediated a divisive ethnic schism between the Irish and German immigrants.<ref name="arkansas" /> Fitzgerald gained his American citizenship in 1859.<ref name="arkansas" />

During the American Civil War in the early 1860s, Fitzgerald organized an Irish-American military company called the Montgomery Guards that fought with the Union Army. He frequently visited Camp Chase in Columbus to minister to Confederate Army prisoners.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Clarke |first=D.A. |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924012522870/page/2/mode/2up |title=Diocese of Columbus : the history of fifty years, 1868-1918 |publisher=Diocese of Columbus |year=1918 |location=Columbus |pages=73 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Bishop of Little Rock === thumb|Cathedral of Saint Andrew, Little Rock, Arkansas (2022) On April 24, 1866, Fitzgerald was appointed the second bishop of Little Rock by Pope Pius IX.<ref name="hierarchy">{{cite news |title=Bishop Edward Fitzgerald |url=http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bfite.html |work=Catholic-Hierarchy.org}}{{Self-published source|date=March 2015}}</ref> Fitzgerald initially refused the appointment, but was commanded by Pius IX to accept it in December 1866.<ref name="diocese">{{cite news|work=Roman Catholic Diocese of Little Rock|title=The Most Rev. Edward M. Fitzgerald|url=http://www.dolr.org/bishop/fitzgerald.php|access-date=2009-08-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090821033156/http://www.dolr.org/bishop/fitzgerald.php|archive-date=2009-08-21|url-status=dead}}</ref> He received his episcopal consecration on February 3, 1867, from Purcell, with Bishops John Lynch and Sylvester Rosecrans serving as co-consecrators, at St. Patrick's Church.<ref name="hierarchy" /> At age 33, he was the youngest member of the American hierarchy.<ref name="diocese" />

Arriving in Arkansas by steamboat in March 1867,<ref name="diocese" /> he found four parishes, five priests, and 1,600 Catholics; by the time of his death in 1907, there were 41 churches with resident priests, 32 missions, 60 priests, and 20,000 Catholics.<ref name="catholic" /> He first rebuilt the churches and missions ravaged during the war.<ref name="diocese" /> From 1869 to 1870, he attended the First Vatican Council in Rome. At the council, Fitzgerald was the only U.S. bishop to vote against papal infallibility.<ref>Petersen, Svend. "The Little Rock against the Bog Rock", ''Arkansas Historical Quarterly'' 2 (June 1943) p. 164</ref> While he believed in the theological grounds for infallibility, he feared that its dogmatic definition would hamper the conversion of non-Catholics in Arkansas.<ref name="diocese" /> However, he fully submitted to the council's decision when the tally ended.<ref name="arkansas" />

Fitzgerald encouraged Catholic immigration to Arkansas from Germany, Italy, and Poland; he introduced the Benedictine Sisters and the Sisters of Charity; and established St. Benedict's Priory in Subiaco, Arkansas.<ref name="diocese" /> He laid the cornerstone of Cathedral of St. Andrew in July 1878, and dedicated it in November 1881.<ref name="arkansas" /> Fitzgerald delivered the opening sermon at the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884, and opened St. Vincent's Infirmary, the first Catholic hospital in Arkansas, in 1888.<ref name="arkansas" /> In 1894 he dedicated the first Catholic church in Arkansas for African Americans, at Pine Bluff, Arkansas.<ref name="catholic" />

Fitzgerald suffered a stroke in January 1900, and was subsequently paralyzed.<ref name="diocese" /> Pope Pius X appointed Reverend John Morris as his coadjutor bishop in June 1906.<ref name="morris">{{cite news|work=Catholic-Hierarchy.org|title=Bishop John Baptist Morris|url=http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bmorris.html}}{{Self-published source|date=March 2015}}</ref> Fitzgerald also suffered from depression, once writing, <blockquote>"I find in me a growing dislike in making exertions of any kind, a bad sign in me, no longer a young man...I am overwhelmed with despondency and gloom."<ref name="luyet">{{cite news|work=Roman Catholic Diocese of Little Rock|title=Bishop Edward Fitzgerald was a reluctant but ready servant|url=http://www.arkansascatholic.org/article.php?id=776|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130225233901/http://www.arkansascatholic.org/article.php?id=776|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 25, 2013|last=Luyet|first=Gregory T}}</ref></blockquote>

=== Death and legacy === Edward Fitzgerald died at St. Joseph's Hospital in Hot Springs, Arkansas,<ref name="diocese" /> on February 20, 1907, at age 73. He is buried in a crypt under the Cathedral of St. Andrew.<ref name="arkansas" />

==References== {{reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{s-rel|ca}} {{succession box | before=Andrew Byrne| title=Bishop of Little Rock | years=1867&mdash;1907 | after=John Baptist Morris }} {{s-end}} {{Roman Catholic Diocese of Little Rock}} {{Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzgerald, Edward}} Category:1833 births Category:1907 deaths Category:Christian clergy from Limerick (city) Category:Irish emigrants to the United States Category:The Athenaeum of Ohio alumni Category:Mount St. Mary's University alumni Category:Archdiocese of Cincinnati Category:Roman Catholic bishops of Little Rock Category:19th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the United States Category:20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the United States Category:Participants in the First Vatican Council