Thomas Joseph Shahan

Bishop Thomas J. Shahan
Rector of the Catholic University of America 1909-1928; Auxiliary bishop of Baltimore 1914-1932
File:Founder's Chapel (Washington Basilica) 02.JPG Bishop Shahan's grave in the National Shrine
Church	Roman Catholic
Archdiocese	Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore
See	Germanicopolis
Predecessor	Joseph Maria Koudelka
Successor	Franciscus Joosten
Orders
Ordination	3 June 1882
Consecration	15 November 1914
Personal details
Birth name	Thomas Joseph Shahan
Born	(1857-09-11)11 September 1857 Manchester, New Hampshire
Died
Buried	Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Nationality	Irish
Occupation	Church historian
Alma mater	The American College, Rome; Pontifical Roman Seminary; University of Berlin

Thomas Joseph Shahan (September 11, 1857 – March 9, 1932) was an American Roman Catholic theologian and educator, born at Manchester, New Hampshire, educated at Collège de Montréal (1872) at the Pontifical North American College, and at the Propaganda in Rome.

He studied at the Roman Seminary (J.U.L., 1889) and at the University of Berlin (S.T.D., 1891), then served as professor of Church law and patrology at The Catholic University of America (1891–1909) and as rector of the university (1909–1928). It was under his rectorship that African American students were barred from the university. He was also president of the Catholic Educational Association in 1909-14 and of the National Conference of Catholic Charities in 1910-14. In 1914 he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Baltimore, and ordained titular bishop of Germanicopolis on 15 November that year.

Professor Shahan was an editor of the Catholic Encyclopedia (published in 1913), editor in chief of The Catholic Historical Review from its foundation in 1915 until 1928, and one of the editors of Universal Knowledge: A Dictionary and Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences, History and Biography, Law, Literature, Religions, Nations, Races, Customs and Institutions (New York: Universal Knowledge Foundation, 1927).

Bishop Shahan founded the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

Published works

As author

• The Blessed Virgin in the Catacombs (1892)
• Giovanni Batista de Rossi (1900)
• The Beginnings of Christianity (1903)
• The Middle Ages (1904)
• The House of God and Other Addresses and Studies (1905)
• St. Patrick in History (1905)

As translator

• Otto Bardenhewer, Patrology: The Lives and Works of the Fathers of the Church; translated from the second edition by Thomas J. Shahan. Freiburg im Breisgau and St. Louis, Missouri: B. Herder, 1908.

External links

• Catholic University of America
• Thomas Joseph Shahan at Find a Grave

Academic offices
Preceded by Denis J. O'Connell	Rector of CUA 1909–1927	Succeeded by James Hugh Ryan