R.T. REV. PATRICK MANOGUE, Bishop of the Dioceses of Sacramento, Catholic. The great spiritual see over which this gentleman presides embraces the twenty-five northern and central counties of California and the whole of the western and most populous portion of the State of Nevada, and was practically created for him in the year 1886, as will be more fully seen later on. For the laborious duties entailed upon the Bishop of the field so extensive and including the wild mining regions of the Sierra Nevadas, probably no one could be better fitted than the affable Bishop Manogue, on account of his life and training and his singularly clear judgment of human nature. He was born in the County of Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1831. At the city of Callan, Kilkenny, he pursued his early studies, and there recited until in 1849 he came to America. After a few years spent in the Eastern States, he continued his studies at the University of St. Mary' s of the Lake at Chicago. During the cholera season of 1854 in that city he wore out his health in the arduous labors of the time, and for the purpose of recuperating he for fourteen months live the hard life of a minor in Nevada County, California, learning by actual experience the privations and hearty pleasures of this rougher but sturdy phase of human life. In his own words, copying a report of an address delivered by him at the time of the laying of the cornerstone of grand Cathedral of the Holy Sacrament in this city, he "held a drill when at every stroke of the hammer the fire flew from the flinty quartz. Whenever hard work was to be done he referred to his associates (who had been his partners in the mine) to prove he was ready to take a hand in its performance." But those were the days when the thrift, the brawn of the State, was in the mountains. In all, he lived for three years in the mines, and then proceeded to Paris, where at the grand Seminary of St. Sulpice he completed his studies by a course extending over four years, and in 1861 was ordained as a priest by Cardinal Morlot, especially for work in the archdioceses here. Passing through Virginia City, Nevada, on his way to this State, he was appointed to his first mission there, and for twenty years occupied that field. For fifteen years previously to his being appointed Coadjutor Bishop of the dioceses, he was Vicar-general of the whole dioceses. Sharon, Mackay and Fair were personal friends, who left monuments there which will not equal of those left by the Bishop. He had erected the first Gothic building in Virginia City, costing $80,000. During his priesthood at Virginia City, he built three churches, a convent, and a hospital, at a total cost of about $300,000, all of which large sum was collected by himself, and paid for. His residence there is remembered with the veneration, love and affection of every one in that section irrespective of church, the kindness of heart and ready hand of Father Manogue aiding multitudes through seasons of distress. In 1880 he was appointed Coadjutor to Bishop O'Connell, of the Grass Valley Dioceses. In 1884 he was appointed to succeed Bishop O'Connell, who, by reason of the advancing years and long labor in the vineyards of the church, was permitted to retire. In 1886, owing to Bishop Manogue's representations of the decadence of Grass Valley in its importance as a center, due to the slackening of mining matters, and the growing consequence of Sacramento as the political head of the State and a distributing point for trade, Pope Leo XIII decreed that hereafter what had before been known and recognized as the Catholic Dioceses of Grass Valley should be styled and acknowledged as the Dioceses of Sacramento, with the seat of the episcopate in Sacramento City. At once he set personally at work, and utilizing to the fullest that rare combination of business qualifications and theological attainments by which Bishop Manogue is characterized, to better this state of the dioceses. Recognizing the necessity for a more representative house of worship than then existed, he bent his energies to the task of another edifice. The result is the grand "Cathedral of the Holy Sacrament," located at the corner of K and Eleventh streets, completed and dedicated in the summer of 1889. On another page is presented an engraving of this splendid structure, which is fully described elsewhere. For grandeur, or architectural magnificence, and artistic finish, it has no equal in the West, and it is a noble addition to the attractions of California from a scenic standpoint. Further, it should be stated that under the vigorous hand of Bishop Manogue new life has been infused into the veins of what has been heretofore the somewhat sluggish city of Sacramento. Yet not alone in a business and material sense has the episcopate of Bishop Manogue aroused life and activity. Every branch of faith has likewise stirred at the sight of the vigor of the Church. Other church edifices are projected, the cause of charity meets a ready response, and cognate organizations are moving with renewed effort. Such in brief and imperfect form is a stretch of one of whom (to copy from a local paper) "little can be said that is not known wide and well the broad Pacific Coast over, throughout its hills and valleys, its mountains and plains, wherever pioneer Christian labor was to be performed. Nor has an abiding love and veneration for him found lodgement alone in the Catholic heart; for if current history be reliable he numbers among his most ardent admirers and dearest friends man of all creeds and countries,--Protestant, Jew, Gentile, pagan and heathen; moneyed man and traveling tramps alike revering the Bishop for his qualities of head and heart."
Source: An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. By Hon. Win. J Davis. Lewis Publishing Company 1890. Page 251-253.
Submitted by: Nancy Pratt Melton.