The eldest of 10 children of Irish-born Michael Morris Healy and Mary Elisa Smith, a mulatto slave, James Augustine Healy was born April 6, 1830 on a 1,300-acre plantation near Macon, Georgia.
Because his children were considered slaves under Georgia law, Healy's father enrolled them in northern schools, James and the older sons at a Quaker school on Long Island, N.Y. However, to escape the rical taunts of local residents, they were moved in 1844 to grammer, secondary and collegiate schools at the new Holy Cross Collage in Worcester, Mass. In the College's first graduating class in 1849, James finished at the top of his class,earning a Master's degree two years later.
Responding to the call to the priesthood, James Healy first entered the seminary in Montreal, later enrolling in the Seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris, where, in 1854 in Notre Dame Cathedral, he was ordained a priest. The next 21 years would see him in his service to the Church in the Diocese of Boston.
Named in 1875 by Pope Pius IX to suceed Bishop David Bacon, who headed a diocese then comprising Maine and New Hampshire ( and founder of Portland's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception ) , Healy became the first Catholic Black bishop in the U.S.
During his 25-year tenure as dicesan bishop, James Augustine Healy established an impressive record as a Shephard of his flock and as a builder. With the Catholic population doubling in numbers, sixty churches, 18 schools and as many convents and welfare institutions were constructed under Healy's leadership. He was appointed an assistant to the papal throne, one step below a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII, author of the ground-breaking encyclical, Rerum Novarum.
Bishop Healy died on August 5, 1900. Instead of internment in the Cathedral, his parish church, he chose to be buried in Calvary Cemetery, where his grave is marked by a tall Celtic cross.
