- Michael O'Connor (bishop)
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Michael O'Connor Bishop of Pittsburgh 
A lithograph portrait of Bishop Michael O'Connor from The National Cyclopaedia of American BiographyChurch Roman Catholic Church See Pittsburgh In Office August 15, 1843 – July 29, 1853
December 20, 1853 – May 23, 1860Predecessor none Successor Michael Domenec Orders Ordination June 1, 1833 Personal details Born September 27, 1810
Cobh, County Cork, IrelandDied October 18, 1872 (aged 62)
Woodstock, Maryland, United StatesPrevious post Bishop of Erie (1853) Michael O'Connor, S.J. (September 27, 1810 – October 18, 1872) was an Irish-born clergyman of Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Pittsburgh (1843–53, 1853–60) and Bishop of Erie (1853).
Contents
Early life and education
Michael O'Connor was born in Cobh, near the city of Cork, in County Cork, Ireland.[1] His younger brother, James, would serve as the first Bishop of Omaha, Nebraska, from 1885 to 1891.[2] He received his early education in his native town, and served an altar boy at the Cathedral of Cloyne.[3] At the age of fourteen, he was sent by Bishop William Coppinger to begin his studies for the priesthood in France.[4]
He continued his studies at the Urban College of the Propaganda in Rome.[4] He completed his courses in philosophy and theology with distinction, and won a gold medal for being the first in mathematics.[3] Among his fellow students at the Propaganda were Paul Cullen, Francis Kenrick, and Martin Spalding.[3] He finished his studies before reaching the canonical age for ordination, and spent the interval as a professor of Sacred Scriptures at the Propaganda.[3] He earned a Doctor of Divinity degree following a public disputation, in which he underwent the same test made by Saints Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure at the University of Paris in the thirteenth century.[3]
Priesthood
O'Connor was ordained a priest in Rome on June 1, 1833.[5] He was then appointed vice-rector of the Pontifical Irish College in the same city.[4] He also served as an agent of the Irish bishops with the Holy See, and gained the friendship and esteem of both Pope Gregory XVI and Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman.[3] In 1834, he returned to his native country and served as a curate in Fermoy.[4] He was also chaplain at the Presentation Convent in Doneraile and professor of dogmatic theology at Maynooth College.[3]
In 1839, Bishop Francis Kenrick invited O'Connor to join the faculty of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.[4] O'Connor accepted the offer, and arrived in Philadelphia later that year. He immediately assumed the chair of theology at St. Charles, of which he became president soon afterwards.[4] In addition to his academic duties, he ministered at the missions in Norristown and West Chester twice a month.[3] He also built St. Francis Xavier Church in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia.[4] In 1840, he was relieved of his duties as a professor and missionary, but continued to serve as president of St. Charles.[3]
In June 1841, O'Connor was appointed vicar general of Western Pennsylvania and pastor of St. Paul's Church in Pittsburgh.[4] He there established a parochial school and organized a literary society for young men.[4]
Episcopacy
The Fifth Provincial Council of Baltimore, which was held in May 1843, recommended the erection of the Diocese of Pittsburgh and nominated O'Connor as its first Bishop.[3] O'Connor subsequently went to Rome to petition Gregory XVI to revoke his appointment and allow him to enter the Society of Jesus.[4] The Pope, however, refused and said, "You shall be bishop first, and a Jesuit afterwards."[4] He accepted the Pope's will and was formally appointed the first Bishop of Pittsburgh on August 11, 1843.[5] On the following August 15, he received his episcopal consecration from Cardinal Giacomo Filippo Fransoni at the church of Sant'Agata dei Goti in Rome.[5]
On his return to the United States, O'Connor passed through Ireland to recruit clergy for his new diocese, obtaining eight seminarians from Maynooth College and seven Sisters of Mercy from Dublin.[4] He arrived at Pittsburgh in December 1843, and found 33 churches, 14 priests, and about 25,000 Catholics in the diocese.[4] He held the first diocesan synod in 1844, and the same year he founded a girls' academy and orphan asylum, a chapel for African Americans, the Pittsburgh Catholic newspaper, and St. Michael's Seminary.[3] He introduced several religious orders into the diocese, including the Benedictines who founded St. Vincent's Abbey.[3]
On July 29, 1853, O'Connor was appointed the first Bishop of the newly-erected Diocese of Erie by Pope Pius IX.[5] The dividing line of the new diocese ran east and west along the northern boundaries of Cambria, Indiana, Armstrong, Butler, and Lawrence Counties, giving thirteen northern counties to the Diocese of Erie and fifteen to the Diocese of Pittsburgh.[3] Father Joshua Maria Young was named his successor in Pittsburgh, but Young's reluctance to accept his new charge and the petition of Pittsburgh Catholics moved the Holy See to reverse its decision.[4] Five months after his transfer to Erie, O'Connor was re-appointed to Pittsburgh on December 20, 1853.[5]
In 1854, he was summoned to Rome to take part in the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, and it is said that changes in the wording of the decree were due to his suggestions.[3] His health entered into a steady decline and, on the advice of his physicians, traveled throughout Europe, Asia, and North America in search of a more hospitable climate.[3] At the end of O'Connor's tenure, the diocese contained 77 churches, 86 priests, six religious orders, one seminary, five institutions of higher education, two orphan asylums, one hospital, and a Catholic population of 50,000.[4]
Later life and death
O'Connor resigned as Bishop of Pittsburgh on May 23, 1860.[5] Pursuing his desire to join the Society of Jesus, he sailed for Europe the following October and entered the Jesuit novitiate at Gorheim near Sigmaringen on December 22.[3] After two years in Gorheim, by a special dispensation of Superior General Peter Jan Beckx, O'Connor was permitted to make his solemn profession of the four vows at once.[3] He returned to the United States, and made his profession at Boston, Massachusetts, on December 23, 1862.[3] He then taught theology at Boston College, and was appointed socius to the provincial superior of the Jesuits, a position in which he remained until his death.[4] He took a special interest in the spiritual welfare of African Americans, and delivered lectures in many parts of the United States and Canada.[4]
His health failing, O'Connor was sent to rest at Woodstock College in Maryland during the spring of 1872.[3] He died there some months later, at the age of sixty-two.[1] He is buried in Jesuit cemetery at Woodstock.[1]
References
- ^ a b c "Former Diocesan Bishops". Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh. http://www.diopitt.org/wel_former_bishops.php.
- ^ "Catholicity in Nebraska: 1854-1931". The Franciscans in Nebraska. http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/topic/religion/catholic/Franciscans/pages/pt2/fine0003.htm.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Clarke, Richard Henry (1888). Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States. III. New York: P. O'Shea Publisher.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "Pittsburgh". Catholic Encyclopedia. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12121a.htm.
- ^ a b c d e f "Bishop Michael O’Connor, S.J.". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/boconnorm.html.
External links
Preceded by
noneBishop of Pittsburgh
1843–1853Succeeded by
vacantPreceded by
noneBishop of Erie
1853–1854Succeeded by
Joshua Maria YoungPreceded by
vacantBishop of Pittsburgh
1854–1860Succeeded by
Michael DomenecCategories:- 1810 births
- 1872 deaths
- People from County Cork
- Roman Catholic Bishops of Pittsburgh
- Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie
- American religious figures of Irish descent
- Religious leaders from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- 19th-century Roman Catholic bishops
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