Edgar Philip Prindle Wadhams


Edgar Philip Prindle Wadhams was the first bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ogdensburg, New York.

Biography

Born on May 17, 1817 at Lewis, Essex County. He was a deacon in the Episcopalian Church, who later converted to Roman Catholicism. He was rector of the cathedral and Vicar-General of Albany, when called to organize Northern New York into a new diocese. He was consecrated at Albany on May 5, 1872, by Archbishop John McCloskey.
Bishop Wadhams increased the number of parishes and priests and introduced several religious communities; he founded Catholic schools and erected an orphan asylum, a hospital, and an aged people's home. At his death on December 5, 1891, at the age of 74, the number of churches had increased from 65 to 125; priests from 42 to 81; nuns from 23 to 129 and Catholic schools from 7 to 20; the Catholic population had risen from 50,000 to 65,000. He attended the New York Provincial Council of 1883 and the Plenary Council of Baltimore of 1884, and held three diocesan synods. His remains are buried in the crypt of St. Mary's Cathedral, which he had enlarged and embellished.