Archbishop Michael A. Corrigan (1839-1902)

Today in 1902 marks the death of Michael Augustine Corrigan, New York’s third Archbishop. Born in 1839 to a wealthy Irish immigrant family in New Jersey, In 1859, he was a member of the North American College’s first class. Ordained in Rome in 1863, he stayed on to earn a doctorate in Theology. He returned to New Jersey as director of the seminary at Seton Hall College. In 1869, he was named president of the college, and four years later he became Bishop of Newark. Over the next seven years 69 churches and missions were erected. In 1880, he was named coadjutor to the Archbishop of New York with the right of succession. In 1885, he succeeded Cardinal John McCloskey as Archbishop. During his 17 years in New York, 99 parishes were erected, along with 75 schools. The number of clergy doubled and 24 religious communities came into the archdiocese. In 1896, at the cost of nearly a million dollars, he built St. Joseph’s Seminary at Dunwoodie. Archbishop Corrigan started an extensive outreach to the city’s growing Italian community. In 1902, while leading a group of pilgrims to Rome, he suffered a fall, contracted pneumonia, and died of heart failure.