Paul Leonard Hagarty

Paul Leonard Hagarty, O.S.B., O.B.E. (March 20, 1909 – September 22, 1984) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He was the first Bishop of Nassau (1960–81), having previously served as Vicar Apostolic of the Bahama Islands (1950–60).

Hagarty was born in Greene, Iowa, one of ten children of James Herbert and Lucy Belle (née O'Connell) Hagarty. He attended Oakland School No. 8 and Sacred Heart Academy before entering Greene Catholic High School. He then studied at Loras College in Dubuque, where he paid for his first year with the compensation he received from a railroad accident in which he suffered a broken leg. He paid the rest of his way through college with a Saturday job at J. C. Penney, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1930.

He worked as a geologist for the Union Pacific Railroad, as well as a junior meteorologist with the National Weather Service, before joining the Order of St. Benedict, more commonly known as the Benedictines, at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, in 1931. He made his profession as a Benedictine monk on November 6, 1932, taking the name Leonard. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 6, 1936.

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