James Edward McManus

James Edward McManus, C.Ss.R. (October 10, 1900 – July 3, 1976) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. A Redemptorist, he served as Bishop of Ponce in Puerto Rico (1947–63) and as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York (1963–70).

James McManus was born in Brooklyn, New York, the eighth of nine children of William and Elizabeth (née O'Loughlin) McManus. He received his early education at the parochial school of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Brooklyn from 1906 to 1914. In 1915, he enrolled at St. Mary's College, a preparatory school run by the Redemptorists in North East, Pennsylvania. He then studied at Mount St. Alphonsus Seminary at Esopus from 1922 to 1928. He made his profession as a Redemptorist in Ilchester, Maryland, on August 2, 1922.

On June 19, 1927, McManus was ordained to the priesthood in Esopus. He was assigned to the Puerto Rican mission in Caguas in 1929. He later returned to the continental United States to study at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he earned a Doctor of Canon Law degree in 1937. He then served as professor of canon law at Mount St. Alphonsus Seminary until 1940, when he returned to Puerto Rico. He served as a pastor in Aguadilla (1940–45) and then in Mayagüez (1945–47).