Bishop Braxton was born in Chicago on June 28, 1944, and attended Catholic schools in the Chicago area. He earned his master’s degree from St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, Mundelein, Illinois, and a Ph.D. in religious studies and systematic theology from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. Bishop Braxton was ordained a priest on May 13, 1970.
From 1986 to 1991, he was the official theological consultant for William H. Sadlier Inc., the Catholic catechetical publisher in New York, where he also worked in the parish ministry at St. Joseph Church in Greenwich Village. From 1984 to 1986, he was director of Calvert House, the Catholic Student Center at the University of Chicago. In 1983, he was the Scholar in Residence at the North American College in Rome. From 1978 to 1983, Bishop Braxton served as personal theologian and research assistant to Cardinal James Hickey, Archbishop of Washington, D.C.
Bishop Braxton is nationally recognized as a pastoral theologian. His writings have appeared in the Harvard Theological Review, Theological Studies, Louvain Studies, Irish Theological Quarterly, The New Catholic Encyclopedia, Origins, Commonweal, America, The National Catholic Reporter and other journals. He is a former Visiting Professor at the University of Notre Dame, the Catholic University of America, the Harvard Divinity School and the North American College in Rome.
Bishop Edward K. Braxton was ordained Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis on May 17, 1995 by Archbishop Justin Rigali in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis.
Bishop Braxton’s responsibilities in St. Louis were many, he served the Archdiocese as Vicar General for Catholic Hospitals, Catholic Charities, the Permanent Diaconate and Evangelization. He is a member of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops Committees on Education, Science and Human Values, Scripture Translations and is Chairman of the Committee for the American College of Louvain. He serves as the Convenor of the African-American Catholic Bishops.
Prior to being named auxiliary bishop, he served as pastor of St. Catherine of Siena and St. Lucy Parish in Oak Park, Illinois from 1991 to 1995. and he was named Bishop of Louisiana in 2001.