Sylvester Horton Rosecrans

The body of Bishop Rosecrans is entombed in St. Joseph Cathedral (Columbus, Ohio).

Sylvester Rosecrans was born on February 5, 1827, in Homer, Ohio, to Crandell and Jane (née Hopkins) Rosecrans, the youngest of four sons.[2] Crandell's family came from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, then moved to Kingston Township, Ohio.[3] Jane was the granddaughter of Stephen Hopkins, the Colonial Governor of Rhode Island, and grandniece of Esek Hopkins, the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War.[4] Sylvester Rosecrans' brother was General William Rosecrans of the Union Army, who fought in the American Civil War.[5]

Raised in a Methodist family, Rosecrans spent his childhood in Licking County, Ohio, in the town of Homer.[3][6] Crandall worked both as a farmer and as an engineer.[6] While attending Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio in 1845, he received a letter from William Rosecrans announcing his conversion to Catholicism.[3] Influenced by his brother's conversion, Rosecrans converted to Catholicism that same year, being ministered to by Jean-Baptiste Lamy while the latter was serving as a missionary priest in the area. After leaving Kenyon College, he enrolled at St. John's College in New York City.[7] After graduating from St. John's in 1846 with high honors, Rosecrans decided to enter the priesthood. Archbishop John Purcell sent him to Rome to study at the Pontifical Urbaniana University, where he earned his Doctor of Theology degree.[2]

Rosecrans was ordained into the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in Rome by Cardinal Costantino Patrizi on June 5, 1852.[8]

After touring through Italy, France, England, and Ireland, Rosecrans returned to Cincinnati. His first assignment was as pastor of St. Thomas' Parish in Cincinnati.[7] He was then assigned as a curate at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral Parish and as a professor at Mount St. Mary's Seminary of the West, both in Cincinnati.[7] In 1859, Archbishop Purcell opened a college for Catholic youth in connection with the seminary and named Rosecrans as its president.[3] However, the college closed in 1861 with the outbreak of the American Civil War.[2]

On December 23, 1861, Rosecrans was appointed as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Cincinnati and titular bishop of Pompeiopolis by Pope Pius IX.[8] He received his episcopal consecration on March 25, 1862, from Archbishop Purcell, with Bishops Martin Spalding and John Luers serving as co-consecrators, at St. Peter's Cathedral.[8] Following the consecration of Edward Fitzgerald as Bishop of Little Rock in February 1867, Rosecrans replaced him as pastor of St. Patrick's Parish in Columbus.[2]

Rosecrans was named the first bishop of the newly erected Diocese of Columbus on March 3, 1868, by Pope Pius IX .[8] The new diocese included central, south central, and southeastern Ohio, roughly running from the Scioto River on the west across to the Ohio River along the east; it comprised 32 parishes and about 41,000 Catholics.[9] Rosecrans journeyed throughout the diocese by stagecoach, wagon, or steamboat.[10] The Vatican excused him from participating in the First Vatican Council (1869–1870) in Rome in order to tend to his new diocese.[2]

During his 10-year-long tenure, Rosecrans founded St. Aloysius Seminary for young men in 1871, dedicated the diocese to the Sacred Heart in December 1873, and established the diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Columbian, in 1875.[2][7] Rosecrans founded the following institutions in Columbus:

• St. Aloysius Seminary (1871)
• St. Mary's of the Springs Academy for Young Ladies (1868)[11]
• St. Joseph's Academy (1875) [12]
• St. Vincent's Orphan Asylum (1875) [13]
• Sacred Heart Convent[3]

Rosecrans' greatest achievement was the construction of St. Joseph's Cathedral in Columbus, costing $220,000. He consecrated it on October 20, 1878.[7]

Sylvester Rosecrans died in Columbus on October 21, 1878, the day after the cathedral consecration. He was age 51. Bishop Rosecrans High School in Zanesville, Ohio, is named after him.