John Connolly, O.P. (1750 – February 6, 1825), was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

-born

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pref ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. A Dominican

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...

, he served as the second Bishop of New York from 1814 until his death in 1825.

Biography

Early life

John Connolly was born in

County Meath County Meath (; gle, Contae na Mí or simply ) is a county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. It is bordered by Dublin to the southeast, Louth to the northeast, Kildare to the south, Offaly to the sou ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

; according to various sources, he was born in either

Slane Slane () is a village in County Meath, in Ireland. The village stands on a steep hillside on the left bank of the River Boyne at the intersection of the N2 (Dublin to Monaghan road) and the N51 (Drogheda to Navan road). As of the 2016 census ...

O'Daniel, Victor. "John Connolly." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 6 Oct. 2014
/ref> or

Drogheda Drogheda ( , ; , meaning "bridge at the ford") is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, north of Dublin. It is located on the Dublin–Belfast corridor on the east coast of Ireland, mostly in County Louth ...

. Dominican historian Victor O'Daniel reports that Connolly's family had a tenant farm on the

Hill of Slane Slane () is a village in County Meath, in Ireland. The village stands on a steep hillside on the left bank of the River Boyne at the intersection of the N2 (Dublin to Monaghan road) and the N51 ( Drogheda to Navan road). As of the 2016 censu ...

. After receiving his early education in his native country, he continued his studies in Belgium, and entered the

Order of Friars Preachers The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of Cal ...

, more commonly known as the Dominican friars, at an early age. He was subsequently sent to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, where he was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

to the priesthood on September 24, 1774. Among the various capacities he filled in Rome, Connolly served as a professor at the Dominican convent of St. Clement, of which institution he later became

prior Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...

. He was also an agent of the Irish bishops, and saved the English and Irish colleges—as well as his own convent, church, and library—from being plundered by the French invaders.

Bishop of New York

On October 4, 1814, Connolly was appointed the second Bishop of New York in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Pope Pius VII Pope Pius VII ( it, Pio VII; born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti; 14 August 1742 – 20 August 1823), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 14 March 1800 to his death in August 1823. Chiaramonti was also a m ...

. He received his episcopal

consecration Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

on the following November 6 from Cardinal Cesare Brancadoro, with Archbishops

Giovanni Francesco Guerrieri Giovanni Francesco Guerrieri (1589–1655) was an Italian painter and Caravaggisto. Guerrieri was born in Fossombrone. In 1606 he travelled to Rome where he studied under some notable artists including Orazio Gentileschi Orazio Lomi Gentile ...

and Giovanni Marchetti serving as

co-consecrators A consecrator is a bishop who ordains someone to the episcopacy. A co-consecrator is someone who assists the consecrator bishop in the act of ordaining a new bishop. The terms are used in the canon law of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches, ...

, in Rome. Connolly set sail from Italy and stopped in Ireland on the way. At St. Kieran's College in Kilkenny, he attempted to recruit priests for his new diocese.Corrigan, Michael. "Register of Clergy", ''Historical Records and Studies'', Vol. 2, United States Catholic Historical Society, 1901, p. 36
/ref> He did not reach New York until November 24, 1815. He arrived on board the ''Sally'' from a transatlantic trip that took all of sixty-seven days, and Connolly had been presumed lost at sea. Since the first Bishop of New York,

R. Luke Concanen Richard Luke Concanen, Dominican Order, O.P. (December 27, 1747 – June 19, 1810), was an Irish people, Irish prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, who served as the first bishop (Catholic Church), bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New ...

, O.P., had been impeded from sailing for New York due to the embargo of Europe then in place, Connolly was the first bishop of the diocese to minister personally to his flock. He is described as having been a "small-sized man" and a person of more than ordinary mildness and gentleness of character, who would travel the city on foot to attend to the poor and sick. According to historian

Peter Guilday Monsignor Peter Keenan Guilday (March 25, 1884 - July 31, 1947) US Catholic priest and historian.John Tracy Ellis, "Monsignore Peter Guilday" in ''The Catholic Historical Review'' 43:3 (Oct. 1947), 257-268. Life Guilday was born in Chester, Penns ...

, "It may well be doubted if, in the entire history of the Catholic Church in the United States, any other bishop began his episcopal life under such disheartening conditions."Egan, Edward. "A Bishop for New York Arrives", Archdiocese of New York, January 18, 2007
/ref> At the time of Connolly's arrival, the diocese covered all of New York and part of

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, with four priests, three churches, and approximately 15,000 Catholics, most of them Irish, along with some English, French and Germans. There were three churches: St. Peter's on Barclay Street, St. Patrick's on Mulberry St., and St. Mary's in Albany. During his tenure, he erected churches in Utica and

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, founded an

orphanage An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...

, and introduced the

Sisters of Charity Many religious communities have the term Sisters of Charity in their name. Some ''Sisters of Charity'' communities refer to the Vincentian tradition, or in America to the tradition of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, but others are unrelated. The ...

. He traveled over 1,000 miles on horseback, preaching and bringing the sacraments to half-starved immigrants, largely from Ireland, who were building the

Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...

. Connolly died on February 6, 1825, at age 74. He is interred at St. Patrick's Old Cathedral He body was later displaced to a vault by the trustees to make way for that of an influential layman. It was not rediscovered until the building was renovated in 1976. Terence Cardinal Cooke had it reinterred in St. Patrick's Old Cathedral.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Connolly, John 1750 births 1825 deaths People from County Meath American Dominicans Irish Dominicans Irish expatriates in Italy Irish Roman Catholic missionaries Dominican bishops 19th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the United States Roman Catholic bishops of New York Irish expatriate Catholic bishops Irish emigrants to the United States (before 1923) Burials at St. Patrick's Old Cathedral Roman Catholic missionaries in the United States