Religion: K. of C.'s 49th

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An extraordinary mixture of serenity and forcefulness, Cardinal Gibbons became known as a defender of things purely American. His first address as Cardinal (in Rome) was in praise of the U.S. separation of Church and State. He defeated proposals to obtain control, under European leadership, of immigrants to the U.S. He began the movement to canonize Mother Seton, first U.S. candidate for sainthood (TIME, Aug. 3). was a co-founder and first chancellor and board president of the Catholic University of America in Washington. Politically sagacious, he helped adjust the status of his church in Porto Rico and Cuba after the Spanish-American War. During the World War he organized the National Catholic War Council and the National Catholic Welfare Council (now Conference).

Revered almost as a Church Father during the last of his 87 years. Cardinal Gibbons kept himself a public figure until he died in 1921. Stories circulated about him: He visited the Pope, who called him "Jibbons" (TIME, April 13). He was called "the man who never made a mistake." He was the last living American to remember seeing Andrew Jackson (last U.S. general to beat a British army) in the streets of Baltimore. In voluminous garments he used to bathe at Atlantic City with the late Archbishop Ryan of Philadelphia. Once an on-looker said: "What a very handsome man [the Archbishop] but what a poor, sickly wife he's got!"