Thomas Bonacum

Who was Thomas Bonacum?

Thomas Bonacum was the first bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lincoln.

He started as the rector of the Church of the Holy Name in St. Louis, Missouri. He was appointed the first bishop of Lincoln, consecrated 30 November 1887, and took formal possession of the see on 21 December 1888.

He was born near Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland and emigrated to the United States when he was a child, settling at St. Louis, Missouri. He studied at St. Vincent's College, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and at the University of Würzburg, Bavaria, after which he was ordained priest at St. Louis, 18 June 1870. He attended the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore as theologian for Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick, and was named by the bishops as the first Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Belleville proposed for Southern Illinois. The Congregation of Propaganda did not immediately act, and Bonacum was appointed to the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska.