Michael Anthony Fleming
Catholic bishop
Michael Anthony Fleming, O.F.M. (c. 1792 – July 14, 1850) was an Irish-born Franciscan who served as the Catholic bishop of St. John's, Newfoundland. He was principally responsible for developing a small mission with a few priests in four parishes into a large diocese with over 40,000 faithful and was the single most influential Irish immigrant to come to the Colony of Newfoundland in the 19th century. He was the principal force behind the creation of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in St. John's.
Biography
Early life
Fleming was born about three miles from Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, Ireland. As a boy, he studied the classics for two years at Stradbally, County Waterford, under a Protestant pastor. Encouraged by his uncle, Martin Fleming, O.S.F., he entered the novitiate of the friars in Wexford, and was subsequently transferred to the Franciscan house of studies there. Fleming was ordained a Catholic priest on 15 October 1815, after which he was assigned to the friary at Carrickbeg, where his uncle was guardian.
“Michael Anthony Fleming” enters the record as catholic bishop. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Michael, Anthony and Fleming can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15502684. VIAF identifies the subject as 104521570. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1792, 1850 and 1815.
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This entry incorporates text from “Michael Anthony Fleming” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.