James Patterson Lyke

James Lyke was born on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, the youngest of seven children of Amos and Ora (née Sneed) Lyke.[1] His father abandoned the family, and his mother was left to raise the children in impoverished surroundings, relying on welfare checks.[2] The family lived in a flat, where there were no beds and the only source of heat was a coal stove, before moving to Wentworth Gardens, a Chicago housing project.[2] His mother, a Baptist, sent James to a Catholic school in the fourth grade in order to keep him out of trouble, and did the church's laundry to help pay the tuition. Shortly afterwards, she and six of her children, including James, converted to Catholicism.[2]

He joined the Franciscan order in 1959, studying at St. Francis Novitiate in Teutopolis, Illinois, later obtaining his B.A. degree in philosophy at Our Lady of Angels House of Philosophy through Quincy College in Illinois. He held a master's of divinity from St. Joseph Theological Seminary in Teutopolis and received a Ph.D. in theology in 1981 from the Union Graduate School in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Pope John Paul II named him Auxiliary Bishop of Cleveland and titular bishop of Furnos Major on June 30, 1979.[3] While serving as Auxiliary Bishop in the Diocese of Cleveland, Lyke coordinated the hymnal project that produced Lead Me, Guide Me: The African American Catholic Hymnal in 1987.[4]

After the resignation of Archbishop Eugene Marino due to scandal, Lyke was appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Atlanta on July 10, 1990.

He was appointed archbishop there on April 30, 1991,[5][6] and was installed there on June 24, 1991.

Lyke died of cancer on December 27, 1992. At the time of his death, he was the highest-ranking black Catholic clergyman in the nation.[7]

• Lyke House - the Catholic (Newman) Center in the Atlanta University Center - is named for him.
• Archbishop Lyke Catholic Elementary School in Cleveland-Garfield Heights is named after him. In 1994, Saints Catherine and Henry in Cleveland and Saint Timothy in Garfield Heights which are predominantly African-American Catholic parishes merged their grade schools into Archbishop Lyke Elementary. They have a two campus system in which St.Henry has grades k-4 and St. Timothy grades 5-8.