Theodore Dehon

The Right Reverend

Theodore Dehon

D.D.
The Right Reverend; Theodore Dehon; D.D.
Bishop of South Carolina
	portrait by John Stevens Cogdell
Church	Episcopal Church
Diocese	South Carolina
Elected	February 20, 1812
In office	1812–1817
Predecessor	Robert Smith
Successor	Nathaniel Bowen
Orders
Ordination	October 9, 1800; by Edward Bass
Consecration	October 15, 1812; by William White
Personal details
Born	December 8, 1776; Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Died	August 6, 1817 (aged 40); Charleston, South Carolina, United States
Buried	St. Michael's Churchyard
Nationality	American
Denomination	Anglican
Parents	Theodore & Frances Dehon
Spouse	Sarah Russell (m. 1813)
Children	3
Alma mater	Harvard College

Theodore Dehon (December 8, 1776 – August 6, 1817) was the second bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina.

Biography[edit]

Theodore Dehon was born in Boston and graduated from Harvard University in 1795. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Edward Bass in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on December 24, 1797, and the next month began his call as rector of Trinity Church, Newport, Rhode Island. He was ordained priest on October 9, 1800.

After paying a visit to South Carolina he was offered positions in Charleston, but demurred until 1810, when he accepted a position as rector of St. Michael's Church, Charleston. He was elected diocesan bishop in February 1812 and was consecrated on October 15, 1812. After the General Convention in New York City in 1817, he returned to Charleston but contracted yellow fever, dying August 6. He was buried at St. Michael's Church. His writings met with some posthumous success.

His obituary in the Essex Register of Saturday 23 August 1817 reads: "To our bill of mortality we have to add the death of the Right Reverend Theodore Dehon, D.D aged 41, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the English Communion, in S. Carolina, on the 6th instant. This amiable man and truly Christian Bishop was born in Boston, and graduated at Cambridge in 1795. He succeeded Bishop Robert Smith, who died in 1801, but not immediately, but in 1812. To a suavity of manners, correct elocution, and a soul of devotion, he added the purity and best accomplishments of life, a just taste, and an excellent judgement, with an extensive knowledge of the duties and the studies of his profession."