O'LEARY, LOUIS JAMES (1877-1930)

O'LEARY, LOUIS JAMES, Catholic priest, administrator, and auxiliary bishop of Chatham; b. Richibucto, N.B., 17 Aug 1877, s/o Henry O'Leary and Mary O'Leary; ordained 1900; d. Cincinnati, Ohio, 8 Jul 1930.

Louis J. O'Leary was one of two sons of a Richibucto businessman who had remarkable scholastic records, followed by equally outstanding careers in the Catholic priesthood. He received his higher education at St Joseph's College in Memramcook, where he took a BA at age seventeen. He then enrolled in the Grand Seminary in Montreal, where his academic performance was such that Laval University granted him a DD degree. Being too young for ordination, he continued his studies in Rome and earned a doctorate in canon law.

O'Leary was ordained in Rome in 1900 and came back to Canada in 1902. For the next twelve years he served as secretary to Bishop Thomas F. Barry and as chancellor of the Chatham diocese. For several years he also carried pastoral responsibility for the Loggieville mission. In 1914 he was installed as auxiliary bishop. When Bishop Barry died in January 1920 he became the interim administrator. Soon afterwards he himself was appointed bishop of Charlottetown, as successor to his brother, Bishop Henry Joseph O'Leary, who then became bishop of Edmonton.

O'Leary was prominent in the educational work of the Chatham diocese and was a frequent guest in the classrooms of St Michael's Academy. He played the largest part in the founding of St Joseph's preparatory school, which opened in 1913 in the former Hotel Dieu Hospital building. This was a day and residential school for boys in grades one through four which was conducted in parallel with St Michael's Academy, and was also administered and taught by the Religious Hospitallers of St Joseph.

O'Leary remained bishop of Charlottetown until his death in a Cincinnati hospital in 1930, at age fifty-two, while he was visiting at the home of his brother William O'Leary in Dayton, Ohio.