History of Helena, (Phillips County) Arkansas United States of America

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Andrew Byrne, R. C. bishop, was born at Navan, Ireland, Dec. 5, 1802. While a student at the College of Navan he decided to join the American mission, and in 1820 he accompanied Bishop England to the United States, where he finished his theological studies, and was ordained in 1827. He was sent as a missionary priest to the scattered Catholic families in North and South Carolina. Three years of this arduous work, with its long and fatiguing journeys, made inroads upon his health, which caused his return to Charleston in 1830, where he was made vicar-general, and accompanied Bishop England as theologian to the council of Baltimore. In 1836 he was assistant pastor at the cathedral in New York, and afterwards pastor of St. James's church in that city. In 1841 he made a journey to Ireland at the request of Bishop Hughes, to induce Christian brothers to take charge of the parochial schools in New York, but was unsuccessful in accomplishing the object of his mission. Father Byrne now became pastor of the church of the Nativity in New York until, in 1841, he opened the new St. Andrew's church, which through his exertions had been transformed from a secular edifice into a Christian church. In 1843 the new diocese of Little Rock, Ark., was erected, and he was chosen its first bishop, and consecrated at St. Patrick's cathedral, by Bishop Hughes, March 10, 1844. His missionary labors, which extended to the Indian nation, were even more arduous than those of his first charge, as he had often to travel from seven hundred to one thousand miles from one mission to another. He twice visited Ireland, where he procured a number of assistants and co-laborers. He, with the assistance of a colony of sisters of mercy, founded five convents and numerous parochial schools. He attended the sixth provincial council, and in 1856 attended the first provincial council of New Orleans. His efforts were constant and widespread, his zeal unflagging. The Catholic population to which he ministered increased from five thousand in 1844 to over fifty thousand in 1862, and his efforts in behalf of Catholic immigration to his diocese were of great benefit to the south and west, in furnishing an industrious class of settlers. Bishop Byrne died at Helena, Ark., Jan. 10, 1862.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Helena, (Phillips County) Arkansas

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