Benedict Joseph Fenwick (1782–1846) was an American Catholic bishop and educator who served as Bishop of Boston from 1825 until his death. Born in Maryland, he entered the Society of Jesus and began his ministry in the Diocese of New York, where he eventually became the vicar general and administrator. In 1817, he became the president of Georgetown College in Washington, D.C. Months later, Ambrose Maréchal, Archbishop of Baltimore, sent him to St. Mary's Church in Charleston, South Carolina, to resolve a longstanding schism. In 1825, Fenwick became the bishop of Boston, during a period of rapid growth of the city's Catholic population due to Irish immigration. Intense nativism and anti-Catholicism culminated with the burning of the Ursuline Convent in 1834, threats against Fenwick's life, and the formation of the Montgomery Guards. He established numerous churches, charitable institutions, newspapers, and schools, including The Pilot in 1829 and the College of the Holy Cross in 1843. (Full article...)