Dehon Theodore, Dd

Dehon Theodore, D.D., bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the diocese of South Carolina, was born in Boston, Mass., in Dec., 1776. His early education was obtained in the public school, where, for some years, he stood at the head of his class. In 1791 he entered Harvard University, where he graduated with the highest honors in 1795. He at once commenced his preparation for the ministry, for which, from early childhood, he had evinced a strong inclination. — In 1797 he was ordained, and soon became the rector of Trinity Church, Newport, R. I., where he remained until 1810, when he was compelled, by failing health, to seek a milder climate. An invitation to the rectorship of St. Michael's Church, Charleston, S. C., was accepted. In this charge, as at Newport, he was loved and revered by all classes. In 1812 he was elected bishop of the diocese of South Carolina, to which office he was solemnly set apart, in Philadelphia, by the venerable Bishop White. He continued in the rectorship of his church, and performed its duties and those of the bishopric, with eminent zeal, discretion, and success, until he fell a victim to yellow fever in August, 1817. At the request of the vestry of St. Michael's, he was buried beneath its chancel. His sermons, in two volumes, have passed through two editions in this country, and through three in England. They are models of practical pulpit discourse. See Memoir by Rev. Dr. Gadsden, and Pref. to 2d edit. Sermons, vol. i; also Sprague, Annals, v. 425.