More about Bishop Primeau

The sixth Bishop of Manchester was the Most Reverend Ernest J. Primeau. He was born in Chicago, Illinois on September 17, 1909. He was ordained a priest for service in the Archdiocese of Chicago on April 7, 1934. After serving in parishes and teaching in the Archdiocese, Ernest Primeau spent 12 years in Rome, with his primary duty to serve as rector of St. Mary of the Lake, the Chicago house of studies.

In 1958, he was named pastor of one of the largest parishes in the city of Chicago. In 1959 he was appointed by Blessed Pope John XXIII to be the sixth Bishop of Manchester. Albert Cardinal Myer ordained him a bishop in Chicago on February 13, 1960 and he was installed in Manchester by Richard Cardinal Cushing on March 15, 1960. He was one of the leading bishops from North America during the Second Vatican Council and spent a great deal of time in Rome in the first half of the decade. He also founded the first foreign mission of the diocese in 1963 in Cartago, Columbia.

Bishop Primeau became the first bishop of Manchester to resign from office on January 30, 1974. He died in Manchester on June 6, 1989.