Bernard A. Maguire SJ (February 11, 1818 – April 26, 1886) was an Irish-American Catholic priest and Jesuit who served twice as the president of Georgetown University.

His tenure is regarded as successful; new buildings were erected, the number of students increased, and the preparatory division was partially separated from Georgetown College.

Upon the end of his presidency in 1858, he engaged in pastoral and missionary work in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, and developed a reputation as a skilled preacher.

John McElroy, a Catholic priest, periodically visited the Maguires and other families working on the canal project.

In school, Maguire and his classmate, Enoch Louis Lowe, were continually at the top of their class, and they participated in oratory declamations together.

[2] On September 20, 1837, Maguire entered the Society of Jesus,[2] and proceeded to the Jesuit novitiate in Frederick,[3] where he was supervised by Francis Dzierozynski.

His time at Georgetown was paused during the 1842–1843 academic year, while he taught mathematics and was the prefect at Saint John's College; he also oversaw the school's library and museum.

[4] During that time, there was an uprising among the students, stemming from a dispute between the Philodemic Society and the first prefect over when the club were permitted to hold meetings.

[7] After word of this standoff reached the local newspapers, Maguire met with the students to persuade them to peacefully return.

[4] During his tertianship from 1851 to 1852, which was supervised by Felix Cicaterri,[4] Maguire was elected to succeed Charles H. Stonestreet as the president of Georgetown University in December 1852.

[4] Some students were displeased with the prefect's imposition of discipline and Maguire's declination to overrule him; they staged another uprising, throwing stones and inkwells to break the windows.

[8] The rebellion was quickly quashed after a lecture at breakfast the following morning, in which Maguire appealed to the students' sense of honor.

[10] In April 1853, the university was visited by the Catholic intellectual Orestes Brownson,[11] and the commencement of 1854 was attended by Franklin Pierce, the president of the United States.

[13] Despite the construction of new buildings, a significant increase in the number of students left Georgetown pressed for physical accommodations.

In 1859, he was transferred to St. Aloysius Church in Washington, D.C., where his renown as a preacher grew, and his sermons caused many Protestants to convert to Catholicism.

"[20] Upon the end of the 1866 academic year in July, he immediately began to repair and expand the buildings that were damaged from being used as barracks and a military hospital by the Union Army.

[17] In April 1886, Maguire led a retreat on Passion Sunday at Old St. Joseph's Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after having just finished leading a triduum for men at the Cathedral of the Assumption in Baltimore.

[31] His requiem mass was held at St. Aloysius Church in Washington, and he was buried at the Jesuit Community Cemetery at Georgetown University.