Religion / City history
Caspar Henry Borgess
1826–1890 · second Catholic Bishop of Detroit (1871–1887)
German-born bishop who led the Diocese of Detroit from 1871 to 1887, invited the Jesuits to found the future University of Detroit and clashed with Polish parishioners.
- Born
Addrup, Grand Duchy of Oldenburg (Germany)- Died
Kalamazoo, Michigan
aged 63- Also known as
- Bishop Borgess
- Detroit years
- 1870–1887
- Field
- Religion, City history
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Caspar Henry Borgess was born in 1826 in Addrup, in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, and followed an uncle, a priest who had served Detroit's Holy Trinity Church, to America. He studied for the priesthood in Cincinnati, served parishes in Columbus and became rector of Cincinnati's cathedral. In 1870 Pope Pius IX named him coadjutor bishop of Detroit, and in effect he ran the diocese from then on, becoming bishop in name when the long-absent Frederick Rese died at the end of 1871. Detroit was growing fast with German, Irish and Polish immigrants, and Borgess built parishes and schools for them. In 1877 he invited the Jesuits, his former teachers, to open a college in the city, which became the University of Detroit. He was a strict administrator: in 1885 he removed the popular pastor of St. Albertus, Detroit's first Polish parish, and placed the church under interdict when the congregation resisted, a bitter conflict. He resigned in 1887 and died in Kalamazoo in 1890; since 1939 he has rested in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.
Highlights
- Coadjutor from 1870, then Bishop of Detroit 1871–1887
- Invited the Jesuits to found the University of Detroit in 1877
- Placed St. Albertus, Detroit's first Polish parish, under interdict in 1885
- Reburied in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in 1939
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Buried here · 1939–
Holy Sepulchre Cemetery
Archdiocesan cemetery in Southfield, where his remains were moved in 1939.
Related place · 1885
St. Albertus Church
Closed
Detroit's first Polish Catholic parish, which Borgess placed under interdict in 1885 during a dispute over its pastor; the historic church no longer operates as a parish.