Joseph Sadoc Alemany y Conill, O.P. (Spanish: José Sadoc Alemany y Conill; July 3, 1814 – April 14, 1888) was a Spanish Catholic clergyman, who served most of his career in California. He served as the first Bishop of Monterey (1850–53) and then as Archbishop of San Francisco (1853–84). Early life Alemany was born in Vic, Catalonia, on July 3, 1814, to Antoni Alemany i Font and Miquela dels Sants i Saborit. Alemany entered the Dominican Order in 1821 and pursued his theological studies at the convents of Trumpt and Garona. His solemn profession of religious vows made in September 1831, the same year that his protégé, Patrick Manogue was born in Ireland. He was then sent to Rome to study at the College of St. Thomas in Rome, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, commonly referred to as the Angelicum, where in 1840 he was made Lector in Theology. Alemany was ordained a priest in the cathedral of Viterbo on March 11, 1837, by Archbishop Gaspare Bernardo Pianetti. During his studies in Rome, he had an audience with Pope Gregory XVI. Career The Dominican superiors sent Alemany to the United States in 1841. The first years of his missionary activity were spent in Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee, and in 1847, he was made provincial of the order of Dominicans in the state of Ohio. He eventually becoming a naturalized United States citizen. In 1848, Alemany was appointed Prior Provincial of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph. In 1850 his abilities attracted the attention of the papal court during his presence at the general chapter of the order. Summoned to Rome, Alemany met on June 11, 1850, with Cardinal Giacomo Filippo Fransoni, informed of his appointment as Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Monterey in California. Alemany replied, "No." Pope Pius IX ordered Alemany to a private audience on June 16. Pope Pius told Alemany, "You must go to California....Where others are drawn by gold, you must carry the Cross." Fransoni consecrated Alemany as Bishop of Monterey on June 30, 1850, in Rome; thus, becoming the first American bishop in California. Monterey Before leaving Europe, Alemany determined that he would need the help of a community of religious women for the education of the children of his new territory. He traveled around, visiting various monasteries of Dominican nuns. When he arrived in Paris, he went to the