Michael Anthony Fleming
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The Right Reverend Michael Anthony Fleming, O.S.F. |
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| Bishop of St. John's, Newfoundland | |
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| Diocese | St. John's, Newfoundland |
| Appointed | 4 June 1847 |
| Term ended | 14 July 1850 |
| Predecessor | Thomas Scallan, O.S.F. |
| Successor | John T. Mullock, O.S.F. |
| Other posts | Vicar Apostolic of Newfoundland (1830-1847); Coadjutor bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of Newfoundland (1829-1830); Titular bishop of Carpasia (1829-1847) |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 15 October 1815 |
| Consecration | 28 October 1829 by Thomas Scallan, O.S.F. |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1792 Carrick-on-Suir, Tipperary, Kingdom of Ireland |
| Died | 14 July 1850 St. John's, Colony of Newfoundland, British Empire |
| Buried | Basilica of St. John the Baptist, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador |
| Nationality |
 Ireland
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| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
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Styles of Michael Anthony Fleming |
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| Reference style | The Right Reverend |
| Spoken style | Your Excellency |
| Religious style | Monsignor |
| Posthumous style | none |
Michael Anthony Fleming, O.S.F. (c. 1792 – July 14, 1850) was an Irish-born Friar Minor who served as the Roman Catholic Church bishop of the Diocese of St. John's, Newfoundland. He was principally responsible for changing a small mission with several priests in four parishes into a large diocese with over 40,000 congregants and was the single most influential Irish immigrant to come to the Colony of Newfoundland in the 19th century. He was the principal creator of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in St. John's.
Fleming was born about three miles from Carrick-on-Suir, Tipperary, Ireland. As a boy, Fleming studied the classics for two years at Stradbally, County Waterford, under a Protestant pastor. Encouraged by his uncle, Martin Fleming, O.S.F., he entered the novitiate of the friars in Wexford, and then entered the Franciscan seminary there. Fleming was ordained a Catholic priest on 15 October 1815, after which he was assigned to the friary at Carrickbeg, where his uncle was guardian. His experience in helping to rebuild the Franciscan chapel there marked him at an early age as a "builder", and stood him in good stead for his later work in the Newfoundland.
In 1823, at the invitation of Thomas Scallan, O.S.F., the Vicar Apostolic for Newfoundland, and the Benevolent Irish Society, Fleming was recruited to come and serve as a priest in the colony. From the outset, Fleming proved to be of a very different temperament from Scallan. His ideas about the place of the Irish and Catholicism in Newfoundland were informed by his experience of his close friend Daniel O'Connell's nationalist politics in Ireland.
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