Bishops of Maine

Alexander Viets Griswold was the fifth Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States from 1836 until 1843. He was also the Bishop of the Eastern Diocese, which included all of New England with the exception of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut.  

Born in 1766 in Simsbury, Connecticut, Griswold received degrees from Brown in 1810, Princeton in 1811, and Harvard in 1812. He was ordained deacon in 1795 and priest in late 1795.  After nearly a decade of missionary work, he was appointed rector of St. Michael’s Church, Bristol, Rhode Island, in 1804. Griswold also assumed a leading regional role in the American Episcopal Church. Under his leadership, a united convention met in Boston in May 1810, consisting of delegates from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, to form the Eastern Diocese.

Griswold was elected bishop of the Eastern Diocese and consecrated on May 29, 1811. As the eldest serving bishop, he also served as the Episcopal Church's fifth Presiding Bishop from July 17, 1836, until his death.

Griswold wrote the hymn "Holy Father, Great Creator." He also published Discourses on the Most Important Doctrines and Duties of the Christian Religion (1830); The Reformation and the Apostolic Office (1843); and Remarks on Social Prayer Meetings (published posthumously in 1858).

Griswold died in 1843.