About the Author

The Third Plenary Council of Baltimore was an American assembly held in the nineteenth century. Presiding were Archbishop Gibbons, the Apostolic Delegate, in addition to thirteen other archbishops, sixty-one bishops or their representatives, six abbots, and a religious general. Its sessions were held from the ninth of November to the seventh of December, 1884, and were comprised of twelve decrees. The Third Council is most noteworthy for the vigorous Catholic school building campaign which it spawned, commanding all parishes to provide Catholic education. It also produced the popular Baltimore Catechism for schoolchildren.