(Spanish: José; July 3, 1814 – April 14, 1888) was a Spanish-born American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of San Francisco from 1853 to 1884.

Alemany accepted the appointment and was consecrated by Fransoni as Bishop of Monterey on June 30 in Rome at the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso.

During the early 19th century, the Catholic Church owned thousands of acres of land in the Spanish colonies in California.

During the summer of 1850, Alemany visited England, France and Ireland, trying to raise money and recruit religious sisters.

[10] Alemany, the sisters, and Reverend Francis Sadoc Vilarassa, another Dominican priest, left Liverpool, England in September 1850 on the SS Columbus for New York City.

The group finally sailed to Panama, traveled by mule and dugout canoe to the Pacific Coast, and took a steam ship to California.

He eventually received all the missions, their grounds and cemeteries, along with two large ranchos, or estates: On July 29, 1853, Pius IX removed Northern California, Nevada and Utah from the Diocese of Monterey and established this area as the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

As archbishop of San Francisco, Alemany presided over what became a multinational diocese, owing to the influx of people during the California Gold Rush.

He established national parishes for San Francisco's Italian, Irish, French, German and Mexican communities.

[19] During the American Civil War, there was a division of loyalties in San Francisco between supporters of the secessionist Confederate States of America and those of the federal government.

In the summer of 1861, federal supporters started pressuring Alemany to fly the American flag from all the San Francisco churches on Independence Day, July 4.

[20] Alemany in 1862 founded Saint Mary's College in Moraga, California, for the education of the children of working people.

After traveling in Rome, Alemany was granted an audience with Leo XIII, who appointed him as titular archbishop of Pelusium on March 20, 1885.

Archbishop Joseph T. McGucken celebrated a requiem mass for him at the Old Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception.