The acceptance of the resignation of Hartford's Archbishop Leonard Blair by Pope Francis on May 1, 2024, and the immediate succession of Woburn native, Archbishop Christopher J. Coyne made Hartford one of the American archdioceses to have four of its archbishops alive at the same time.

That gave rise to some other questions about similar situations and about "records" of dioceses and bishops. Just a few.

Many of these records are the result of the growing longevity of Americans in general and with bishops particularly. Also, the movement of bishops from dioceses -- usually smaller to larger; or to archdioceses. An additional cause is that bishops are requested to send their resignation to the pope once they reach 75.

Three metropolitan archdioceses with four living archbishops.



Hartford (2024)

Archbishop Daniel A. Cronin (1991-2003); Archbishop Henry J. Mansell (2003-2013); Archbishop Leonard P. Blair ((2013-2024); Archbishop Christopher J. Coyne (2024). Archbishops Cronin and Coyne served both as priests and Archbishop Cronin as an auxiliary bishop of the Boston Archdiocese.



New Orleans (2009-2011)

Archbishop Philip M. Hannan (1965-1988); Archbishop Francis B. Schulte (1988-2002); Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes (2002-2009); Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond (2009-present). Archbishop Hughes served as both priest and auxiliary bishop in the Boston Archdiocese.



San Francisco (2012-2019)

Archbishop John R. Quinn (1977-1995); Archbishop William J. Levada (1995-2005); Archbishop George H. Niederauer (2005-2012); Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone (2012 -present).

There are several US dioceses with multiple living present and former diocesan bishops. New England has one.



Fall River (2014 to 2024)

Bishop Daniel A. Cronin (1970-1991); Bishop Seán P. O'Malley, OFM Cap. (1992-2002); Bishop George W. Coleman (2003-2014); Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, SDV (2014-present). Bishop Cronin served as both a priest and auxiliary bishop of the Boston archdiocese. Bishop O'Malley is the present metropolitan archbishop of Boston.



Dioceses without death of diocesan bishop

The diocese of Grand Island, Nebraska, has a record with eight bishops serving since its 1913 founding, none of whom died while bishop of the diocese.

Bishop James A. Duffy (1913-1931); Bishop Stanislaus V. Bona (1931-1944); Bishop Edward J. Hunkeler (1945-1951); Bishop John L. Paschang (1951-1972); Bishop John J. Sullivan (1972-1977); Bishop Lawrence J. McNamara (1978-2004); Bishop William J. Dendinger (2004-2015) and Bishop Joseph G. Hanefeldt (2015-present). Both Bishops Dendinger and Hanefeldt are alive.

Florida's long and narrow Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, which stretches from the state capital to the Alabama border, is unique in having two cathedrals, one in the eastern time zone, St. Thomas More in the state capital, and the other Sacred Heart, Pensacola, in the central. From 2017 to 2019, the diocese could boast that all six of its current and past diocesan bishops were alive.

Bishop Rene H. Gracida (1975-1983); Joseph K. Symons (1983-1990); Bishop John M. Smith (1991-1995); John R. Ricard, SSJ (1997-2016); Bishop Gregory L. Parkes (2012-2016); Bishop William A. Wack, CSC (2017-present). Bishop Smith died in 2019.



Longest ordained bishop (ever and alive)

Ever -- Bishop John B. MacGinley was the longest ever serving bishop in the United States, serving first in the Philippines, and then in California, he was a bishop for 59.4 years.

Alive -- Archbishop Daniel A. Cronin is the longest serving bishop in the United States. He has been a bishop for 55.65 years.



Youngest ordained bishop (ever and alive)

Ever -- The youngest priest ever ordained a bishop in the United States was New Orleans Bishop Raymond L. de Neckere, CM. A Vincentian, he was ordained a bishop on June 24, 1830, just a few weeks after his 31st birthday. He eked out this record by a few months over Boston's own second Bishop John B. Fitzpatrick, who was born in Boston on Nov. 15, 1812, and ordained coadjutor bishop of the diocese on March 25, 1843.

The youngest bishop of the United States at the time of his ordination and is still alive is Wilton Cardinal Gregory, who, when he was ordained a bishop on Dec. 13, 1983, had just turned 36. He was an auxiliary of Chicago, then bishop of Belleville, metropolitan archbishop of Atlanta, and currently, metropolitan archbishop of Washington.



Oldest bishop (ever and presently)

Ever -- Archbishop Edward D. Howard, emeritus of Portland in Oregon was the longest-lived bishop ever in the United States. After serving as a priest in Minnesota, and a bishop in Iowa and Oregon, he retired in 1966 and died on Jan. 2, 1983, at the age of 105.

Alive -- The oldest bishop in the United States today is Bishop Rene H. Gracida, who served as a priest in Miami and an auxiliary bishop there; as the first bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee, and then as bishop of Corpus Christi. He will be 101 on June 9, 2024.



Bishop brothers

There have been 10 sets of brothers who have served as bishops in the United States. Here are the bishop brothers. We arranged them alphabetically by their surnames, and then by birth dates.

All the brother bishops are deceased, except Bishop John K. Boland; and the two Bishops Parkes.

Two sets of brothers served as bishops in the same diocese, they were the Blanchets and the Shanahans. The Blanchets served in the Diocese of Walla Walla, Wash., Francis as apostolic administrator, and Augustin as bishop. The Shanahans of Harrisburg, Jeremiah and John, were respectively the first and third bishops of the central Pennsylvania diocese.

Of the bishop brothers only the Irish born Kenricks were both metropolitan archbishops, Francis of Baltimore, and Peter of St. Louis. The Boland brothers were also born in Ireland, while the Blanchets were both born in Canada. The other seven sets of brother bishops were born in the United States.



Blanchet

Francis was born in Quebec in 1795. He was vicar apostolic of the Oregon Territory (1843-1846); the first metropolitan archbishop of Oregon City -- now Portland in Oregon (1846-1880). He was apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Walla Walla (1850-1853) when his younger brother, Augustin, was transferred from Walla Walla to Nesqually. He died in 1883.

Augustin was born in Quebec in 1797. Named the first bishop of Walla Walla, he was transferred to Nesqually in 1850 and retired in 1879. He resigned the see in 1879, and died in 1887.



Boland

Raymond, born in 1932, was priest of the Washington Archdiocese before being named bishop of Birmingham (1988-1993) and then bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph (1993-2005). He died in 2014.

John was born in 1935 and served as a priest of the Savannah Diocese (1959-1995). He was named bishop of Savannah in 1995 and served until his retirement in 2011.



Carroll

Howard, a priest of Pittsburgh, was born in 1902. He served in Pittsburgh until being named bishop of Altoona-Johnstown (1958-1960). He died in 1960.

Coleman was born in Pittsburgh and served as priest and auxiliary bishop there (1930-1953). He was named the first bishop of Miami (1958); and the first metropolitan archbishop of Miami (1968). He died in 1977.



Foley

Thomas, a priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, was born in 1822 and served as priest there until 1869 when he was named coadjutor bishop of Chicago. He served as coadjutor there until his death in 1879.

John was born in 1833 and served as priest in Baltimore (1856-1888) before being named the bishop of Detroit. He served as the Motor City's bishop for three decades until his death in 1918.



Hurley

Mark was a priest of San Francisco from 1944 to 1967, when he was named auxiliary bishop of the City by the Bay. He had been born there in 1919. After serving as auxiliary of his home diocese until 1968, he was named the bishop of Santa Rosa in California. He died in 2001.

Francis was born in San Francisco in 1927 and served as a priest there from his 1951 ordination until he was named auxiliary bishop of Juneau in 1970. He was ordained a bishop by his brother Mark on March 19, 1970, a unique event in the history of bishops in the United States. He subsequently served as the bishop of Juneau (1971-1976) and was named the metropolitan archbishop of Anchorage in 1976. He resigned after almost 25 years there in 2001. He died in 2016.



Kenrick

Francis, born in Ireland in 1797, was ordained in 1821 and, at age 32, was named the coadjutor bishop of Philadelphia in 1830. He served as coadjutor until 1842, when he became the diocesan bishop. He was named the metropolitan archbishop of Baltimore in 1851 and died there in 1863.

Peter was ordained a priest in 1832, having been born in Ireland in 1806. He served as a priest in Kentucky until 1841 at age 34, when he was named the coadjutor bishop of St. Louis. He succeeded as diocesan bishop in 1843. When St. Louis was made a metropolitan see in 1847, he became the first metropolitan archbishop, serving until his retirement at age 88 in 1895. He died in St. Louis in 1896.



Lenihan

Thomas, born in 1844, was priest of the Dubuque Diocese from his 1868 ordination until his 1896 nomination as bishop of Cheyenne, where he was bishop until his death in 1901.

Mathias was born a decade later in 1854 and was ordained in Dubuque in 1879. He served as priest in Iowa until he was named the bishop of Great Falls in 1904. He resigned as diocesan bishop in 1930 and he died in 1943 at age 88.



O'Connor

Michael, a priest from his ordination in 1833, was named bishop of Pittsburgh in 1843. Born in 1810, he served variously as bishop of Pittsburgh (1843-1853) and as bishop of Erie (1853) and again as bishop of Pittsburgh (1853-1860). He entered the Jesuits in 1862 and died 10 years later in 1872.

James, born in 1823, served as a priest in the Pittsburgh Diocese from 1848 to 1876. He was named vicar apostolic of Nebraska and the first bishop of Omaha in 1885 when the Omaha Diocese was created. He died at age 66 in 1890.



Parkes

Gregory, the older of the two Parkes brothers, was born in Mineola, New York, in 1964. Ordained a priest of Orlando in 1999, he served there until he was named the bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee in 2012. In 2016, he was appointed bishop of St. Petersburg.

Stephen was born a year later, also in Mineola, New York. In 1998, he was ordained priest of the Diocese of Orlando and served there until he was named the bishop of Savannah in 2020.



Shanahan

Jeremiah was born in 1834 and was a priest of the Diocese of Philadelphia from his ordination in 1859 until, at age 33, he was named the first bishop of Harrisburg in 1868. He died in 1886 at age 52.

John, who would serve as the third bishop of Harrisburg, was born in 1846 and was also a priest of Philadelphia, serving from 1869 to 1899. He was named diocesan bishop of Harrisburg in 1899 and served until his death at age 70 in 1916.



Two of the very firsts

The First Bishop and the First Metropolitan Archbishop in the United States was John Carroll, he was named the first bishop of Baltimore in 1789 and ordained in 1790. He was named metropolitan archbishop of Baltimore on April 8, 1808, and died there on Dec. 3, 1815.

First Bishop ordained in the US was Bishop Leonard Neale who was ordained a bishop in Baltimore on Dec. 7, 1800. He served as the coadjutor bishop (1800-1808) and coadjutor archbishop (1808-1815) of Baltimore until the death of Archbishop John C Carroll. He was the second archbishop of Baltimore, serving from 1815 until his death in 1817.