The Bishops

St Ignatius was the third Bishop of Antioch in Syria, traditionally a disciple of St John the Apostle, and one of the earliest post-apostolic Christian writers. Arrested under Trajan, he was sent in chains to Rome to be martyred. Full profile ›

St Polycarp was Bishop of Smyrna in Asia Minor and a disciple of St John the Apostle, a direct link between the apostolic age and the later Church. St Irenaeus, who heard him in youth, is a key witness to his life. Full profile ›

St Irenaeus, born in Smyrna and a hearer of St Polycarp, became Bishop of Lugdunum (Lyon) in Gaul around 177. He is the most important second-century theologian and a vital bridge between the apostolic tradition and the developing Church. Full profile ›

St Cyprian was a wealthy, classically educated Carthaginian who converted around 246 and was elected Bishop of Carthage in 249. He led the African Church through the Decian persecution and the controversies over the lapsed and heretical baptism. Full profile ›

St Athanasius was Bishop of Alexandria and the foremost champion of Nicene orthodoxy against Arianism. He had attended the Council of Nicaea (325) as a deacon and succeeded Bishop Alexander in 328. Full profile ›

St Cyril was Bishop of Jerusalem during the turbulent mid-fourth century, becoming bishop around 350. He was repeatedly driven from his see during the Arian controversy, suffering three exiles, but stood with Nicene orthodoxy. Full profile ›

St Hilary, born at Poitiers in Gaul to a pagan family, converted to Christianity and was elected Bishop of Poitiers around 353. He became the leading Western opponent of Arianism, earning the title 'the Athanasius of the West.' Full profile ›

St Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, was the eldest of the three Cappadocian Fathers and a towering champion of Nicene orthodoxy against Arianism. Ordained priest in 363 and consecrated bishop in 370, he joined doctrinal leadership to vast charitable works. Full profile ›

St Gregory of Nazianzus, called 'the Theologian,' was the second of the Cappadocian Fathers and briefly Archbishop of Constantinople. A master rhetorician and contemplative, he was reluctantly drawn into the front line of the Arian struggle. Full profile ›

St Gregory of Nyssa, younger brother of St Basil the Great, was the third Cappadocian Father and the most speculative and mystical theologian of the three. Consecrated Bishop of Nyssa around 372 by his brother, he was deposed by Arian forces before being restored. Full profile ›

St Ambrose was the Roman governor of Aemilia-Liguria who, while still only a catechumen, was acclaimed Bishop of Milan by popular demand in 374 and baptized, ordained, and consecrated within a week. He became one of the four great Latin Doctors. Full profile ›

St John Chrysostom, the 'golden-mouthed' preacher, was ordained priest at Antioch in 386 and consecrated Archbishop of Constantinople in 398. He is one of the three Holy Hierarchs of the East and a Doctor of the Church, renowned for his eloquent biblical homilies. Full profile ›

St Augustine of Hippo, born at Thagaste in Roman North Africa, was converted under the preaching of St Ambrose and baptized in 387. Ordained priest at Hippo Regius in 391 and consecrated its bishop in 396, he became the most influential of the Latin Fathers and the 'Doctor of Grace.' Full profile ›

Born c. 316 in Pannonia (modern Hungary) to pagan parents, Martin served in the Roman cavalry in Gaul before leaving the army to follow Christ. A disciple of St Hilary of Poitiers, he founded the monastery at Ligugé before being acclaimed Bishop of Tours in 371. Full profile ›

Born c. 270 at Patara in Lycia (modern Turkey), Nicholas became Bishop of nearby Myra. Much of his life is wrapped in pious legend, but he was venerated very early as a model of charity and pastoral zeal. Full profile ›

St Cyril of Alexandria succeeded his uncle Theophilus as Patriarch of Alexandria in 412 and became the foremost theologian of the Incarnation in the early Church. A Doctor of the Church, he is called the 'Seal of the Fathers.' Full profile ›

Born c. 437 near Laon in Gaul, Remigius was elected Bishop of Reims while still a young man, traditionally in his twenty-second year, and governed the see for some seven decades — one of the longest episcopates in Church history. Full profile ›

Born c. 385 into a Romano-British Christian family, Patrick was seized by Irish raiders at about sixteen and enslaved in Ireland for six years, during which his faith deepened. After escaping he returned home, was ordained, and felt called back to evangelize the land of his captivity. Full profile ›

A prior of the monastery of St Andrew in Rome, Augustine was chosen by Pope Gregory the Great to lead a mission to convert the Anglo-Saxons of England. He landed in Kent in 597 and was welcomed by King Aethelberht, whose conversion opened the kingdom to the Gospel. Full profile ›

Born c. 560 in Visigothic Spain, Isidore succeeded his brother St Leander as Archbishop of Seville around 600. The most learned man of his age, he labored to consolidate the conversion of the Arian Visigoths and to raise the standard of clergy and people. Full profile ›

Born Wynfrith c. 675 in Wessex, England, he became a Benedictine monk and scholar before giving himself to missionary work on the Continent. Commissioned and renamed 'Boniface' by Pope Gregory II, who consecrated him a missionary bishop in 722, he evangelized the pagan Germanic peoples with papal backing. Full profile ›

Born in Aosta, Anselm became a monk and abbot at the Norman abbey of Bec, where he wrote his major theological works. In 1093 he was named Archbishop of Canterbury, a post that thrust him into bitter conflict with the English crown. Full profile ›

Born in London around 1119, Thomas Becket rose to become Chancellor of England and a close friend of King Henry II. When Henry had him made Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162, Becket unexpectedly became a fierce defender of the Church's liberties against royal power. Full profile ›

Born around 1206 in Swabia, Albert joined the Dominican Order and became one of the most learned men of the Middle Ages, earning the title 'Doctor Universalis' for his mastery of theology, philosophy, and the natural sciences. He pioneered the integration of Aristotle into Christian theology. Full profile ›

Born in Yorkshire around 1469, John Fisher was a distinguished theologian and Chancellor of Cambridge before being consecrated Bishop of Rochester in 1504. A leading scholar of the Catholic Reform, he wrote against Lutheran teaching and championed learning. Full profile ›

Born in 1538 to a noble family of the Duchy of Milan, Charles Borromeo was made a cardinal by his uncle Pope Pius IV in 1560 and played a decisive role in reconvening and concluding the Council of Trent. He was a principal architect of the Counter-Reformation. Full profile ›

Born in 1538 in Mayorga, Spain, Turibius was a respected lawyer and a layman when King Philip II nominated him Archbishop of Lima; he was ordained priest in 1578 and consecrated bishop in 1580. He governed the vast See of Lima for some 26 years. Full profile ›

Robert Bellarmine was an Italian Jesuit, theologian, and cardinal, one of the foremost minds of the Counter-Reformation. Ordained in 1570, he became renowned for his systematic 'Disputations on the Controversies of the Christian Faith,' the leading Catholic answer to Protestantism. Full profile ›

Born in 1567 into a noble Savoyard family, Francis renounced a legal and political career to become a priest in 1593. As a missionary in the Calvinist Chablais he won many back to the Catholic faith through patience and gentle persuasion. Full profile ›

Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori was a Neapolitan lawyer who abandoned the law for the priesthood, ordained in 1726, and gave himself to preaching missions among the poor of the Kingdom of Naples. He was a prolific spiritual writer, moral theologian, and composer. Full profile ›

John Nepomucene Neumann was born in Bohemia and emigrated to the United States, where he was ordained in New York in 1836. He joined the Redemptorists — the first to profess vows in the congregation in America — and ministered to German-speaking immigrants. Full profile ›

Clemens August Graf von Galen was a German nobleman ordained a priest in 1904 and appointed Bishop of Münster in 1933, the year the Nazis took power. He became one of the most outspoken episcopal critics of National Socialism. Full profile ›

Fulton John Sheen was an American bishop, philosopher, and pioneering media evangelist, ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria in 1919. He earned a doctorate at Louvain and taught for over two decades at the Catholic University of America. Full profile ›

Marcel Lefebvre was a French archbishop, ordained in 1929, who spent decades as a missionary in Africa with the Holy Ghost Fathers. Consecrated bishop in 1947, he served as Apostolic Delegate for French-speaking Africa and as Archbishop of Dakar. Full profile ›

Óscar Arnulfo Romero was ordained a priest in Rome in 1942 and rose through the Salvadoran hierarchy, becoming Archbishop of San Salvador in 1977. Initially seen as a cautious conservative, he was transformed by the murder of his friend Fr Rutilio Grande into an outspoken defender of the poor. Full profile ›

Stefan Wyszyński was Archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw and Primate of Poland for over three decades, the towering figure of the Polish Church under Communism. Ordained in 1924 and made Bishop of Lublin in 1946, he was raised to the primatial see in 1948 and created a cardinal in 1953. Full profile ›

József Mindszenty was Archbishop of Esztergom and Primate of Hungary, and one of the great confessor-bishops of the age of dictatorships. Made Bishop of Veszprém in 1944 — imprisoned that same year by the Arrow Cross — he was raised to the primatial see in 1945 and created a cardinal in 1946. Full profile ›

Francis Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận was a Vietnamese bishop, made Bishop of Nha Trang in 1967 and named Coadjutor Archbishop of Saigon in 1975 — only to be arrested by the victorious Communists days later. He spent thirteen years in their prisons, nine of them in solitary confinement. Full profile ›

Raymond Leo Burke, an American canon lawyer, was ordained by Pope Paul VI in 1975, made Bishop of La Crosse in 1995, and Archbishop of St Louis in 2004. In 2008 Benedict XVI called him to Rome as Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, the Church's supreme tribunal, and created him a cardinal in 2010. Full profile ›

Athanasius Schneider, born to a German Catholic family deported within the Soviet Union, was ordained in 1990 and consecrated a bishop in 2006, serving as auxiliary bishop in Kazakhstan. He has become one of the most articulate defenders of liturgical tradition and orthodox doctrine in the contemporary Church. Full profile ›

Robert Sarah, a Guinean prelate, was ordained in 1969 and at thirty-four became Archbishop of Conakry — the youngest bishop in the world — leading the Church under the Marxist dictatorship of Sékou Touré. Called to Rome, he was made a cardinal in 2010 and Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship from 2014 to 2021. Full profile ›

Gerhard Ludwig Müller, a German theologian, was ordained in 1978 and made Bishop of Regensburg in 2002. In 2012 Benedict XVI appointed him Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Church's guardian of doctrine, a post he held until 2017; he was created a cardinal in 2014. Full profile ›

Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, a Salesian, was born in Shanghai in 1932 and fled to Hong Kong in 1948 as the Communists took power. Ordained a priest in 1961 and a doctor of philosophy from Rome in 1964, he spent 1989 to 1996 teaching in the government-permitted seminaries of mainland China, coming to know firsthand the sufferings of the persecuted faithful. He was made Bishop of Hong Kong in 2002 and created a cardinal by Benedict XVI in 2006. Full profile ›