Trenton

(TRENTONENSIS).

Diocese created 15 July, 1881, suffragan of New York, comprises Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Salem, Somerset, and Warren counties in the State of New Jersey, U.S.A. an area of about 5,756 square miles. From 1808 to 1853 the territory now occupied by the Diocese of Trenton covered the lower sections of what was then known as East and West Jersey, the former belonging to the jurisdiction of New York and the latter to Philadelphia. In 1853 the Diocese of Newark was formed, and the entire State of New Jersey was placed under Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley, afterwards Archbishop of Baltimore. The Diocese of Trenton lies between New York and Philadelphia and has within its confines all the sea coast from Sandy Hook to Cape May Point, whereon thirty churches have been built to accommodate the summer visitors to the Jersey coast. The first Mass said within its territory was celebrated at Woodbridge, about 1672, and the city of Trenton, in 1814, witnessed the formation of the first congregation and the erection of the first church.

The first bishop was the Right Rev. Michael Joseph O'Farrell (b. at Limerick, Ireland, 2 December, 1832; d. 2 April, 1894). Bishop O'Farrell completed his classics and philosophy at All Hallows College, Dublin, and went to St-Sulpice, Paris, where he made his theology course. He became a