Right Reverend Aegidius Junger, D.D.
Consecrated Bishop of Nesqually, October 28, 1879
Died December 26, 1895.

Aegidius Junger was ordained the second Bishop of Nesqually October 28, 1879. Junger's years as Bishop occurred during a time of considerable growth in the Washington Territory, where the population increased from 75,000 to nearly 400,000 people. Several new religious orders came to assist Junger, including the Sisters of St. Dominic, the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, and the Benedictine monks. The diocese continued to have insufficient numbers of clergy to minister to a population scattered over a large geographic territory, but Bishop Junger worked tirelessly to build more parishes. One of his major accomplishments was the construction in 1885 of a new St. James Cathedral in Vancouver. Bishop Junger died on December 26, 1895.

Sources:

• O'Connell Killen, Patricia. Abundance of Grace: The History of the Archdiocese of Seattle 1850-2000
• The Catholic Northwest Progress