Joseph Sadoc Alemany

His Excellency, The Most Reverend Joseph Sadoc Alemany O.P.
Archbishop of San Francisco
See	San Francisco
Installed	July 29, 1853
Term ended	December 28, 1884
Successor	Patrick William Riordan
Other post(s)	Bishop of Monterey (1850–1853)
Orders
Ordination	March 11, 1837 by Gaspare Bernardo Pianetti
Consecration	June 30, 1850 by Giacomo Filippo Fransoni
Personal details
Born	Josep Sadoc Alemany i Conill (1814-07-03)July 3, 1814 Vic, Catalonia, Spain
Died	April 14, 1888(1888-04-14) (aged 73) Valencia, Spain
Buried	Church of Sant Domènec, Vic, Catalonia, Spain (1888-1965); Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma, California, United States
Nationality	Spanish American (ca. 1855)
Denomination	Roman Catholic Church
Parents	Antoni Alemany i Font & Miquela dels Sants Conill i Saborit
Alma mater	Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas

Styles of Joseph Sadoc Alemany
Reference style	The Most Reverend
Spoken style	Your Excellency
Religious style	Monsignor
Posthumous style	none

Joseph Sadoc Alemany y Conill, O.P. (Spanish: José Sadoc Alemany y Conill; July 3, 1814 – April 14, 1888) was a Spanish-born American Catholic prelate who served as the first bishop of the Diocese of Monterey in California from 1850 to 1853. He was then appointed as the first archbishop of the new Archdiocese of San Francisco in California, serving from 1853 to 1884. He was a member of the Dominican Order.

Early life

Joseph Alemany was born in Vic, Catalonia in Spain on July 3, 1814, to Antoni Alemany i Font and Miquela dels Sants Conill i Saborit.

Alemany entered the Dominican Order in 1821 and pursued his theological studies at the convent of Trumpt and the Convent de Sant Domènec de Girona in Girona, Spain. He made his solemn profession of religious vows to the Dominicans in 1831. He was then sent to Rome to study at the College of St. Thomas, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, commonly referred to as the Angelicum, where in 1840 he was made Lector in Theology.

Alemany was ordained a priest for the Dominican Order in Viterbo Cathedral in Viterbo, Italy, on March 11, 1837, by Archbishop Gaspare Bernardo Pianetti. During his studies in Rome, Alemany had an audience with Pope Gregory XVI.

Career

Alemany at the golden jubilee of Santa Clara University (1901)

The Dominican superiors sent Alemany to the United States in 1841. The first years of his missionary activity were spent in Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee, and in 1847, he was made provincial of the order of Dominicans in the state of Ohio. He eventually became a naturalized United States citizen.

In 1848, Alemany was appointed prior provincial of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph.

In 1850 his abilities attracted the attention of the papal court during his presence at the general chapter of the order. Summoned to Rome, Alemany met on June 11, 1850, with Cardinal Giacomo Filippo Fransoni, informed of his appointment as Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Monterey in California. Alemany replied, "No." Pope Pius IX ordered Alemany to a private audience on June 16. Pope Pius told Alemany, "You must go to California....Where others are drawn by gold, you must carry the Cross." Fransoni consecrated Alemany as Bishop of Monterey on June 30, 1850, in Rome, thus becoming the first American bishop in California.

Monterey

Before leaving Europe, Alemany determined that he would need the help of a community of religious women for the education of the children of his new territory. He traveled around, visiting various monasteries of Dominican nuns. When he arrived in Paris, he went to the Monastery of the Cross there, where he presented his request for volunteers among the Dominican Sisters. He had one recruit, Sister Mary of the Cross Goemaere, O.P., a Belgian novice.

Alemany soon set sail with her and a fellow Dominican friar, Francis Sadoc Vilarrasa, O.P., arriving in San Francisco on December 6, 1850. Goemaere then founded a community in Monterey which was to become the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael.

San Francisco

Leaving Rome immediately, he brought to his new see religious of both sexes, with whose aid he founded various institutions of learning in California.

When the Archdiocese of San Francisco was erected July 29, 1853, Alemany was appointed by Pope Pius as its first archbishop. Alemany arrived in San Francisco finding three established Catholic parishes: Mission Dolores (San Francisco de Asís) (1776), St. Francis of Assisi (1849) and St. Patrick (1851). As Archbishop of San Francisco, Alemany presided over what became a multinational diocese, owing to the influx of people during the California Gold Rush, and parishes were established for San Francisco's Italian, Irish, French, German and Mexican communities.

Catholic religious institutes were also active during his tenure, with the Society of Jesus establishing Santa Clara University and the University of San Francisco, the De La Salle Christian Brothers taking over the diocesan Saint Mary's College, and the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur establishing in San Jose the Notre Dame de Namur University, and the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary establishing in Oakland the Holy Names University. He and Vilarosa also founded the Dominican Province of the Most Holy Name in 1851, and the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael and Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose were established in the archdiocese in 1851 and 1876, respectively.

As Bishop of Monterey, Alemany had filed a petition with the Public Land Commission on February 19, 1853, for the return of all former mission lands in California. As Archbishop of San Francisco, he sought Fee Ownership of 1,051.44 acres (for all practical intents being the exact area of land occupied by the original mission buildings, cemeteries, and gardens) was subsequently conveyed to the Church, along with the Cañada de los Pinos (or College Rancho) in Santa Barbara County comprising 35,499.73 acres (143.6623 km²), and La Laguna in San Luis Obispo County, consisting of 4,157.02 acres (16.8229 km²). The scope of his authority was large, as the Diocese of Monterey originally encompassed the entire area of the former Mexican province of Alta California, while the Archdiocese of San Francisco encompassed all of the state of California north of Monterey Bay as well as territories that would become Nevada and Utah. However, Alemany wished to return to missionary work and requested a coadjutor bishop. In 1883, Bishop Patrick William Riordan was appointed coadjutor by Pope Leo XIII, and would succeed Alemany upon the latter's resignation as archbishop in 1884.

Later life

Alemany's tomb at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California (2010)

After his resignation, Alemany decided to return to Spain. He left San Francisco for New York City in early 1885. While in New York, he was introduced by William Rosecrans, a former congressman from California, to US President Grover Cleveland. After arriving in Rome, Alemany was granted an audience with Leo XIII, who appointed him as titular archbishop of Pelusium on March 20, 1885.

Alemany's final destination was the Convent of Santo Domingo. He spent the rest of his life working to rehabilitate the Dominican order in Spain. Alemany died at the convent on April 14, 1888. He was buried in the Church of Sant Domènec in his native Vic.

In 1965, the Archdiocese of San Francisco brought Alemany's body was brought back to California. Archbishop Joseph T. McGucken celebrated a requiem mass for him at the Old Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception. His remains were re-interred in the Archbishops' Crypt in the mausoleum in Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California.

He was also an author, publishing his view of The Life of St. Dominick.

Alemany Boulevard and the Alemany Maze in San Francisco, Bishop Alemany High School in Mission Hills, California and the Archbishop Alemany Library at Dominican University of California in San Rafael are all named in his honor.

References

Sources

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Johnson, Rossiter, ed. (1906). "Alemany, Joseph Sadoc". The Biographical Dictionary of America. Vol. 1. Boston: American Biographical Society. pp. 73–74.
• Mc Gloin, S.J., John B. California's First Archbishop: The Life of Joseph Sadoc Alemany, O.P., 1814–1888. New York: Herder and Herder, 1966.
• Parmisano, Fabian Stan. Mission West: The Western Dominican Province, 1850–1966. Oakland, California: Western Dominican Province, 1995.
• Weber, Francis J. 1973. Joseph Sadoc Alemany: Harbinger of a New Era. Los Angeles: Dawson's Book Shop
• Robinson, W. W. (1948). Land in California. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
• Who Was Who in America: Historical Volume, 1607–1896. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1967.

External links

• Dominican Friars: Pioneers in the Archdiocese, opwest.org
• Presentation Sisters to celebrate 150 years, catholicvoiceoakland.org

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1907). "Joseph Sadoc Alemany". Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company. pp. 282–283.