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James Theodore Augustus Holly was born a free African American in Washington, D.C., on October 3, 1829. Holly was ordained deacon at St. Matthew's Church in Detroit, on June 17, 1855, and ordained a priest by the bishop of Connecticut on January 2, 1856. He was appointed rector of St. Luke's, New Haven. In the same year he founded the Protestant Episcopal Society for Promoting the Extension of the Church among Colored People. He became a friend of Frederick Douglass, and the two men worked together on many programs.
In 1861, Holly resigned, as rector of St. Luke's to lead a group of African Americans settling in Haiti. Although his wife, his mother, and two of his children died during the first year, along with other settlers, Holly stayed on with two small sons.
On November 8, 1874, James Theodore Holly was ordained the first bishop of Haiti at Grace Church, New York City. This made him the first Black man to be raised to the office of bishop in the Episcopal Church. In 1878, Bishop Holly attended the Lambeth Conference, the first Black to do so, and he preached at Westminster Abbey on St. James' Day of that year. In the course of his ministry, he doubled the size of his diocese, and established medical clinics where none had been before.
Bishop Holly served the Diocese of Haiti until his death on March 13, 1911. He had charge of the Diocese of the Dominican Republic as well, from 1897 until he died. He is buried on the grounds of St. Vincent's School for Handicapped Children in Port-au-Prince.
(Biography based on Holy Men and Holy Women)
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