John Thayer (1755–5 February 1815) was the first native of New England ordained to the priesthood. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Thayer was educated at Yale College and was a protestant in his early life. He served as a chaplain during the American Revolutionary War. While visiting Rome in 1783, he converted to the Roman Catholic faith, an act which caused a sensation in New England at the time. Thayer studied for the priesthood with the Sulpician order in Paris where he was ordained in 1789. He returned to the United States in 1790 and had a rather checkered career mostly because of his erratic and confrontational temperament. In 1803, he crossed the Atlantic and finally settled in Limerick, Ireland where he was much more successful in the priesthood. He died in Limerick in 1815. After his death, his estate was used to found an Ursuline convent on Mount Benedict in Charlestown, Massachusetts
Source
- "John Thayer". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company.
