WHELAN, James, R. C. bishop, born in Kilkenny, Ireland, 8 December, 1823; died in Zanesville, Ohio, 18 February, 1878. He emigrated to the United States with his parents in 1833, in 1839 entered the Dominican novitiate in Springfield, Kentucky, and took the vows in 1842. He finished his course of philosophy and theology in the Dominican convent at Somerset, Ohio, and was ordained a priest on 2 August, 1846. He was engaged in missionary duties in Somerset and its neighborhood until 1852, when he was elected president of St. Joseph's college, Perry County, Ohio. In 1854 he was made provincial of the Dominican province, which included all the United States except the Pacific coast. Having been nominated coadjutor to Bishop Miles, of Nashville, he was consecrated bishop of Marcopolis in partibus on 8 May, 1859. He became bishop of Nashville on the death of Dr. Miles on 21 February, 1860, and at once began to enlarge the cathedral, established an academy and boarding-school, and founded schools and an orphan asylum. Having obtained permission to pass through the lines to visit Bishop Spalding at Louisville, he was accused, on his return, of making remarks in the National lines which the Confederates thought had influenced the movements of the National army. The reproaches of which he was the object on the occasion, combined with his inability to find a remedy for the evils around him, affected his mind. In 1864 he resigned his see and retired to St. Joseph's convent for a time. He published "Catena Aurea, or a Golden Chain of Evidences demonstrating, from Analytical Treatment of History, that Papal Infallibility is no Novelty," which is regarded as one of the most learned and exhaustive treatises on this question (1871).