
NOTE: Enjoy this excerpt from The American Daily Reader, by CatholicVote president Brian Burch and Emily Stimpson Chapman. To order the complete volume, visit the CatholicVote store today!
When Guy Carleton Bayley (half-brother to the future saint and Catholic convert Elizabeth Ann Seton) married Grace Roosevelt (the descendent of English royalty), two of New York City’s oldest and wealthiest Protestant families united. And when their first son was born in 1814, both families had great plans for the boy, envisioning a career for him in the military or medicine. But the boy—-James Roosevelt Bayley—-had plans of his own.
In 1836, Bayley entered a Protestant seminary in Connecticut. Three years later he became an Episcopal priest. His ministry often took him among the Irish poor, and through that work, his fascination with the Catholic Faith grew. Prolonged conversations with New York’s future cardinal, Father John McCloskey, and his own Catholic cousins—-the children of Mother Seton—-soon turned that fascination into conviction. Within two years of his Episcopal ordination, Bayley entered the Catholic Church. Two years later, on March 2, 1844, he became a Catholic priest.
Upon his ordination, Bayley’s grandfather wrote him out of his will, using his grandson’s multi-million-dollar inheritance to build a hospital instead. But Father Bayley didn’t mind. He was where he wanted to be—-first teaching at St. John’s College, then pastoring a parish on Staten Island, and later working as private secretary to Bishop John Hughes of New York.
In 1853, Father Bayley reluctantly became Bishop Bayley, the first bishop of the Diocese of Newark, New Jersey. He remained in Newark for nearly 20 years, transforming the diocese through an expansive building and vocations campaign that doubled the number of its priests and parishes.
In 1872, Bishop Bayley left Newark to become archbishop of Baltimore—-again, reluctantly. His tenure there, however, was short-lived. Kidney disease forced him into retirement in the spring of 1877, allowing him for a short time to return to the humble priest’s life that he loved. As he explained, “I am Archbishop; I have been Bishop; but I like Father Bayley best of all.”
Bayley died on October 3, 1877.
