Michael O'Connor (4 October 1829 – 14 February 1883), was the first

Catholic 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 ...

Bishop of Ballarat . O'Connor was born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

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 ...

and educated at

Maynooth Maynooth (; ga, Maigh Nuad) is a university town in north County Kildare, Ireland. It is home to Maynooth University (part of the National University of Ireland and also known as the National University of Ireland, Maynooth) and St Patrick's ...

and was a Dunboyne Scholarship Student, at Maynooth he won numerous honours. Taking holy orders, he was appointed parish priest of

Rathfarnham Rathfarnham () is a Southside suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It is south of Terenure, east of Templeogue, and is in the postal districts of Dublin 14 and 16. It is within the administrative areas of both Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Counci ...

, Dublin. In 1875, he was appointed first Roman Catholic Bishop of Ballarat in Victoria, being installed in the cathedral of that city by Archbishop Goold on 20 November of that year. The Bishop died on 14 February 1883.

References

1829 births 1883 deaths Christian clergy from Dublin (city) Alumni of St Patrick's College, Maynooth Irish emigrants to Australia Roman Catholic bishops of Ballarat Irish expatriate Catholic bishops {{Australia-RC-bishop-stub