Welcome To The Bishop Patrick Barry Council Website

Patrick Frank Barry (November 15, 1868—August 12, 1940) was an Irish-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of St. Augustine from 1922 until his death in 1940.  Barry was born in County Clare, Ireland, one of 18 children of Michael and Catherine Barry.  After attending national school, he enrolled at Mungret College in Limerick in 1887.  In 1890, he began his studies for the priesthood at St. Patrick's College in Carlow.  As a seminarian, he was recruited to serve the missions in Florida in the United States.

Barry was ordained a priest June 9, 1895.  He soon after came to the Diocese of St. Augustine, where he served as a curate at Immaculate Conception Church in Jacksonville.  He worked as a chaplain during the Spanish–American War.  He was pastor of St. Monica's Church in Palatka (1903–13), and rector of St. Augustine's Cathedral and vicar general of the diocese (1917–21).  On February 22, 1922, Barry was appointed the fifth Bishop of St. Augustine by Pope Pius XI.  He received his Episcopal Consecration on the following May 3 from Archbishop Michael Joseph Curley, with Bishops John J. Monaghan and William Turner serving as co-consecrators. 

In 1931, he instituted an annual pilgrimage to the shrine of Nuestra Señora de la Leche at the Mission Nombre de Dios in order to draw attention to the long Catholic heritage of the Catholic Church in St. Augustine.  In June, 1932 he sailed with New York’s Cardinal Patrick Hayes to attend the World Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, Ireland.  In 1940, he founded Barry University in Miami Shores along with his sister, Mother M. Gerald Barry, and his brother, Father William Barry.  He died from a heart ailment at St. Vincent's Hospital in Jacksonville, at age 71.