Rev. P. H. Bradley, pastor of the Blessed Sacrament Catholic church at 2700 North Kings Highway in St. Louis, was born January 2, 1563, in the city which is still his home, his parents being John and Mary (Delaney) Bradley, the former a native of Ireland, while the latter was born in Philadelphia, her parents, however, having come to this country from the Emerald isle, crossing the Atlantic on the same vessel that brought Stephen Girard to the new world. John Bradley arrived in the United States in his youthful days, becoming a resident of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was subsequently married. About 1862 he removed westward to St. Louis, where he engaged in dealing in horses and mules for many years.
Rev. Mr. Bradley was educated in the old St. Louis University, where he pursued his classical studies, and later took up the study of philosophy and theology in St. Vincent’s Seminary at Cape Girardeau, Missouri. He was there ordained to the priesthood in 1895, Archbishop Kane officiating. Following his ordination he became assistant at the old Immaculate Conception church at Jefferson and Lucas Place, now the site of an oil station. He served there for two years and was then appointed assistant to the Sacred Heart church, with which he was connected for five years. In 1902 he was appointed pastor of St. Joseph’s church at Louisiana, Missouri, over which he presided for four years. In 1906 he was appointed pastor of the Blessed Sacrament church of St. Louis, then a parish of fifty families in an outlying district. There was no electric light and no gas in the district at the time and Father Bradley had his own electric light plant installed. In 1915 Ice built one of the handsome church edifices of the city, capable of sealing night hundred people and also erected the pastoral residence, built of rough Indiana Bedford stone and containing eighteen rooms. This was planned and erected by him, Father Bradley also superintending the construction of the buildings, which were completed at a cost of fifty-one thousand dollars and probably today could not be duplicated for many times that sum. The parish has been built up to eight hundred families and is one of the most prosperous in the city.
Father Bradley is one of the highly esteemed priests of the Catholic church in St. Louis. He has won the hearty cooperation and support of his parishioners and his labors have brought about results most satisfactory and far-reaching.