Alphonse Joseph Glorieux

Alphonse Glorieux was born on February 1, 1844, in Dottignies, in the Belgian province of Hainaut, in the Kingdom of Belgium of Europe, to Auguste and Lucy (née Vanderghinste) Glorieux.^[1] He graduated from the Collège Saint-Amand in Kortrijk in 1863, then entered the American College of the Immaculate Conception of Louvain in Leuven to study for the priesthood, with the intent to do missionary work across the Atlantic Ocean in the !!United States]].^[2]

Glorieux was ordained a priest on August 17, 1867, by Cardinal Engelbert Sterckx in Mechelen.^[3] In October 1867, two months after his ordination, Glorieux left Belgium and arrived in Portland, Oregon, in December.^[2] He spent a few months in Portland as secretary to Bishop François Blanchet before doing missionary work in Jacksonville, and Roseburg in Southern Oregon.^[1] After holding further posts in Oregon City and St. Paul, he was appointed the first president of the newly established St. Michael's College, a school for boys in Portland, in 1871.^[4]

On February 27, 1885, Glorieux was named the second vicar apostolic of the old federal Idaho Territory (existed 1863-1890) and titular bishop of Apollonia by Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903, served 1878-1903).^[3] His appointment ended a nine-year vacancy following the resignation of Bishop Louis Lootens. He received his episcopal consecration on April 19, 1885, from Archbishop James Gibbons (1831-1921), (Archbishop of Baltimore (later elevated as first Cardinal in the United States, the following year of 1886, heading the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, since 1877), with fellow bishops of Archbishop William Gross and Bishop Camillus Maes serving as co-consecrators, held at the old Baltimore Cathedral of the Assumption, now the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore, Maryland, the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral in the United States (built 1806-1821).^[3]

The vicariate was elevated to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise, encompassing the entire new 43rd State of Idaho, on August 25, 1893, (three years after uts admission to the federal Union by act of the United States Congress and approved by the 23rd President Benjamin Harrison), and Glorieux was named as its first Bishop of Boise.^[3] During his 24-year tenure, he oversaw significant growth in the diocese in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. According to his obituary in the local major daily newspaper of the Idaho Statesman: "The membership of the Catholic church in Idaho has multiplied itself eight times since Bishop Glorieux came to the state, and the number of its churches has increased in a like proportion...and he has been largely responsible for the building and maintenance of the several Catholic hospitals now carrying on their work in the state."^[5] In 1906 he laid the cornerstone for the current Church of St. John the Evangelist in Boise.

Alphonse Glorieux died at the old St. Vincent Hospital in Portland, Oregon on August 25, 1917, at the age of 73 years.^[5]

• Historical list of the Catholic bishops of the United States

•   Media related to Alphonse Joseph Glorieux at Wikimedia Commons
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise