John Lancaster Spalding, the poet-priest, was born at Lebanon, Kentucky,
June 2, 1840. He is a nephew of Archbishop Martin John Spalding. John L.
Spalding was graduated from St. Mary's College, Maryland, in 1859; and a
short time later he was ordained as a priest in the Roman Catholic
church. In 1865 he was secretary to the bishop of Louisville; and four
years later he built St. Augustine's church for the Catholic negroes of
Louisville. In 1871 Spalding was chancellor of the diocese of
Louisville. From 1872 to 1877 he was stationed in New York City. He was
consecrated bishop of Peoria, Illinois, May 1, 1877, which position he
held until 1908, when ill-health compelled his retirement. Bishop
Spalding was appointed by President Roosevelt as one of the arbitrators
to settle the anthracite coal strike of 1902, and this appointment
brought him before the whole country for a time. In 1909 he was created
titular archbishop of Scyphopolis. Bishop Spalding continues his
residence at Peoria, but recently his health has broken so badly that
his life has been despaired of more than once. For many years it has
been his custom to spend his summers in Kentucky with his boyhood
friends and neighbors. He is the author of _The Life of the Most Rev.
Martin John Spalding, Archbishop_ (New York, 1872); _Essays and Reviews_
(1876); _Religious Mission of the Irish People_ (1880); _Lectures and
Discourses_ (1882); _America and Other Poems_ (1885); _Education and the
Higher Life_ (Chicago, 1891); _The Poet's Praise_ (1891); _Things of the
Mind_ (Chicago, 1894); _Means and End of Education; Thoughts and
Theories of Life and Education_ (Chicago, 1897); _Songs: Chiefly from
the German_ (1896); _God and the Soul; Opportunity and Other Essays_
(Chicago, 1901); _Religion, Agnosticism, and Education_ (Chicago,
1902); _Aphorisms and Reflections_ (Chicago, 1901); _Socialism and
Labor_ (Chicago, 1902); _Glimpses of Truth_ (Chicago, 1903); _The
Spalding Year Book_ (1905); _Religion and Art, and other Essays_
(Chicago, 1905). Bishop Spalding's biography of his famous kinsman,
Archbishop Spalding, is his finest prose work, and as a poet he has done
some pleasing verse, most of which, of course, is marred by being woven
into his religion.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Harper's Weekly_ (October 25, 1902); _The Dial_
(January 1, 1904).