Benedict Joseph Fenwick SJ (September 3, 1782 – August 11, 1846) was an American Catholic prelate, Jesuit, and educator who served as the Bishop of Boston from 1825 until his death in 1846.

Born in Maryland, Fenwick entered the Society of Jesus and began his ministry in New York City in 1809 as the co-pastor of St. Peter's Church.

In 1817, Fenwick became the president of Georgetown College, remaining just several months before he was tasked with resolving a longstanding schism at St. Mary's Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

Fenwick became the Bishop of Boston in 1825, during a period of rapid growth of the city's Catholic population due to massive Irish immigration.

At the same time, Catholics faced intense nativism and anti-Catholicism, culminating in the burning of the Ursuline Convent in 1834, threats against Fenwick's life, and the formation of the Montgomery Guards.

Benedict's great-great-great-grandfather, Cuthbert Fenwick, emigrated to America in the 1633 expedition of the Ark and the Dove, and was one of the original Catholic settlers of the British Province of Maryland.

[2] Intending to enter the priesthood, he began his study of theology in 1801,[1] and proved to be a good student, earning highest academic honors.

[1][7] On March 12, 1808, Fenwick was ordained a priest at Georgetown College by Leonard Neale, the coadjutor bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

[11] It remained there only briefly, before relocating to Broadway in September 1809; it moved again in March 1810 to a plot of land "far out in the country,"[10] north of the New York City limits.

[9] The school grew quickly, enrolling the sons of several prominent Catholic and Protestant families, and its curriculum emphasized the study of Latin, Ancient Greek, and French.

[15] When Kohlmann was recalled to Maryland in 1815,[12] Fenwick replaced him as pastor of St. Peter's Church and as the diocesan administrator of the Diocese of New York.

[15] Fenwick became vicar general of the diocese for Bishop John Connelly in 1816,[18] replacing Kohlmann,[16] and remained at the post until April 1817.

[8] Fenwick became the president of Georgetown College and the pastor of Holy Trinity Church on June 28, 1817,[20] succeeding Grassi at the former,[21] and Francis Neale at the latter.

[20] Later that year, Ambrose Maréchal, the Archbishop of Baltimore, sent Fenwick to Charleston, South Carolina, where there was a long-standing schism at a local Catholic church.

[31] Fenwick was appointed the second Bishop of Boston by Pope Leo XII on May 10, 1825, succeeding Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus.

[31] Upon its completion, Fenwick was consecrated a bishop in the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore on November 1.

[32] Archbishop Ambrose Maréchal served as principal consecrator, while Bishops John England and Henry Conwell were co-consecrators.

[37] This included visiting Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes in Maine,[38] who were largely Catholic,[39] and were the subject of intensive proselytism by Protestant evangelists.

[47] By the end of Fenwick's episcopate, the number of Catholics in the Diocese of Boston (after the removal of Hartford) had increased to 70,000, in addition to 37 priests, and 44 churches.

[53] Fenwick also invited the Sisters of Charity from Emmitsburg, Maryland, to Boston to educate the immigrant children of the city in 1832.

In April of the following year, he purchased land adjacent to the Boston cathedral, where he planned to open a college, but the project stalled.

[57] In the spirit of the ongoing Restoration Movement in the United States, Fenwick purchased 11,000 acres (4,500 hectares) in Aroostook County, Maine, in 1835.

[58] Therefore, Fenwick instead decided to establish a college in Worcester, Massachusetts, on 60 acres (24 hectares) of land owned by the local priest, James Fitton.

Fenwick purchased the land from Fitton in 1842, and named the new school the College of the Holy Cross, in honor of the original Boston cathedral.

On August 10, 1834, posters were displayed in the neighborhood that declared an ultimatum: unless the convent were investigated by the board of selectmen of Charlestown, it would be "demolished" by the "Truckmen of Boston."

Widespread violence and destruction occurred during the Broad Street Riot of 1837, and Irish Catholics took up arms as the Montgomery Guards.

Divisions were further deepened by O'Flaherty's support of the temperance movement and opposition to the Acts of Union 1800, which united Ireland and Great Britain.

[76] None of these efforts was effective in restoring tranquility, and on February 20, 1842, O'Beirne's supporters began a riot during a vespers service over which O'Flaherty presided.

Though O'Flaherty's supporters demanded his return, and organized regular train rides to visit him, the dispute at St. Mary's came to an end.