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Michael Francis Egan

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The Right Reverend
Michael Francis Egan
O.F.M.
Bishop of Philadelphia
Michael Egan.jpg
Province Baltimore
Diocese Philadelphia
Appointed April 8, 1808
Installed October 28, 1810
Term ended July 22, 1814
Predecessor none
Successor Henry Conwell
Orders
Ordination 1785 or 1786
Consecration October 28, 1810
by John Carroll
Personal details
Born (1761-09-29)September 29, 1761
Ireland
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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Denomination Roman Catholic

Michael Francis Egan, O.F.M. (September 29, 1761 – July 22, 1814) was an Irish American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Born in Ireland in 1761, he joined the Franciscan Order at a young age. He served as a priest in Rome, Ireland, and Pennsylvania and became known as a gifted preacher. In 1808, Egan was appointed the first Bishop of Philadelphia, holding that position until his death in 1814.[1] Egan's tenure as bishop saw the expansion of the Catholic Church membership in his diocese, but much of his time was consumed by disputes with the lay trustees of his pro-cathedral, St. Mary's Church in Philadelphia.

Early life and priesthood

Michael Francis Egan was born in Ireland on September 29, 1761.[2] The exact location of his birth is uncertain. Early biographers believed Egan was possibly born in Galway,[3] while more recent scholarship suggests it was actually Limerick.[1] He joined the Order of Friars Minor (commonly known as the Franciscans) and studied at the Old University of Leuven and Charles University in Prague.[1] He was ordained a priest, probably while in Prague, in 1785 or 1786.[2][1]

Egan advanced rapidly to positions of responsibility in the Franciscan order.[4] He was appointed custos ("guardian") of the province of Munster in Ireland in March 1787.[5] Later that year, he was also appointed custos of the Pontifical College at Sant’Isidoro a Capo le Case, the home of Irish Franciscans in Rome.[5] Egan remained there until 1790, when he returned to his native Ireland and was appointed custos of Ennis. He remained in Ireland until 1787 or 1788, when he may have made a visit to the United States.[5] After several more years as a missionary in Ireland, Egan came (or returned) to the United States in 1802.[4]

Priest in Pennsylvania

Accepting an invitation from the Catholics near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Egan arrived in the United States in January 1802 to serve as assistant pastor to Louis de Barth at Conewago Chapel in Adams County.[6] When the state legislature sat in Lancaster that year, word of Egan's preaching abilities traveled back to Philadelphia, and soon the parishioners of that city's St. Mary's Church petitioned Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore to send Egan to them.[lower-alpha 1][7]

The following year, 1803, Egan became one of the pastors of St. Mary's Church at Philadelphia.[7] The move coincided with a yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia. While less virulent than Philadelphia's famous 1793 outbreak of the disease, there were nonetheless many deaths, and Egan presided over many funerals that year—St Mary's had 77 interments between June and November 1803.[8] In 1804, Egan received permission to establish a province of Franciscans in the United States for the first time.[9] Because of the Order's vows of poverty, Egan asked Carroll to hold in his name the land Egan had been willed by a parishioner for a Franciscan establishment.[10]

Egan and the trustees of St. Mary's established a singing school in 1804, with the goal of improving the quality of the choir there.[11] The following year was consumed by another yellow fever outbreak, and Egan joined John Rossiter, the pastor of another of Philadelphia's four Catholic churches, St. Joseph's, in ministering to the sick.[12] In 1806, they worked with the parishioners of a third church, Holy Trinty, to found an orphanage, as the problem of orphaned children had been made worse by the yellow fever deaths.[13]

Bishop of Philadelphia

Ordination

St. Mary's Church in Philadelphia served as Egan's cathedral.

The Catholic population in the United States was growing, and Bishop Carroll had for some time wished for his vast diocese to be divided into more manageable territories.[14] On April 8, 1808, Pope Pius VII granted Carroll's request, erecting four new sees in the United States and elevating Baltimore to an archdiocese. Among the new sees was the Diocese of Philadelphia, which included the states of Pennsylvania and Delaware as well as the western and southern parts of New Jersey.[14] Even before the diocese was created, Carroll had determined to recommend Egan for the post, writing to Rome that Egan "was truly pious, learned, religious, remarkable for his great humility, but deficient, perhaps, in firmness and without great experience in the direction of affairs".[15]

Because of disruptions caused by the Napoleonic Wars, the papal bull nominating Egan did not reach the United States until 1810.[4] When it arrived, Egan traveled to St. Peter's Pro-cathedral in Baltimore, where he was ordained bishop by Archbishop Carroll, assisted by Benedict Joseph Flaget and Jean-Louis de Cheverus, who had been appointed to bishoprics but had not yet been consecrated.[2][lower-alpha 2] Egan chose St. Mary's to serve as his pro-cathedral in Philadelphia.[1] Even before Egan's installation, Philadelphia Catholics began to raise funds to expand the church in accordance with its new prominence in the diocese.[16]

Trusteeism dispute

Egan's elevation to the episcopate worsened an existing conflict in the American church: the dispute over trusteeism. In Europe, the Church owned property and directly controlled its parishes through the clergy. In the United States, however, early Catholic churches were typically founded by laymen who purchased the property, erected the church buildings, and accordingly demanded some control over the administration of the parish, even after the arrival of clergy from Europe.[17] The dispute also had nationalist elements to it, as the heavily German parish of Holy Trinity resented the imposition of an Irish bishop instead of one of their own.[18] When Holy Trinty's pastor left for a new assignment in Maryland in 1811, the trustees there were perturbed at Egan's temporary appointment of an Irish priest to lead the parish, until a German priest could be found (a German priest was assigned the following year).[19]

Egan's own research into the issue showed that the trustees had conveyed St. Mary's Church to the previous pastor, Father Robert Harding, and then to his heirs, but the trustees did not consider that property transfer to have extinguished their role in the church's leadership.[20] By 1811, Egan's worsening health caused him to accept the assistance of two priests at St. Mary's, James Harold and his nephew, William Vincent Harold.[20] As Egan and the trustees became embroiled in a dispute about clerical salaries, he also came to believe the Harolds were making the situation worse by taking pro-clergy positions that were more extreme than Egan's own and by the younger Harold's scheming to be named Egan's coadjutor bishop.[21] He appealed to the trustees for compromise, and offered to bring his cousin (also a priest) over from Ireland to replace the elder Harold.[21] By 1813, Egan and the trustees had reconciled and together resolved to remove the Harolds, who agreed to resign later that year and relocate to England.[22]

Death and burial

Although the main complaints between bishop and trustees were resolved, some salary disputes lingered into 1813.[23] The conditions at St. Mary's worsened in 1814 with the election of new trustees who were more in conflict with Egan than the previous ones.[24] Elsewhere in the diocese, Egan was more successful, continuing to raise funds for the Catholic orphanage and opening a new parish, Sacred Heart, in Trenton, New Jersey.[25]

Egan's health also continued to decline, and on July 22, 1814, he died.[26] While 19th-century chroniclers suggest that it "may be said in all truth that Bishop Egan died of a broken heart",[26] a modern biographer believes his health troubles more closely resembled tuberculosis.[1] Egan was buried in St. Mary's churchyard.[27] In 1869, after the construction of the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul on Logan Square, his remains were removed there and reburied in a crypt along with those of his successor, Bishop Henry Conwell.[28]

Notes

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References

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Sources

Books

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Articles

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Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
—
 Bishop of Philadelphia
1808–1814		 Succeeded by
Henry Conwell

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Friend 2010.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Bransom 1990, p. 12.
  3. ↑ Griffin 1893, pp. 3–4.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Loughlin 1909.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Griffin 1893, p. 4.
  6. ↑ Griffin 1893, p. 5.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Griffin 1893, pp. 6–8.
  8. ↑ Griffin 1893, p. 9.
  9. ↑ Griffin 1893, p. 11.
  10. ↑ Griffin 1893, pp. 12–13.
  11. ↑ Griffin 1893, pp. 17–19.
  12. ↑ Griffin 1893, pp. 20–22.
  13. ↑ Griffin 1893, pp. 22–23.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Shea 1888, pp. 617–622.
  15. ↑ Griffin 1893, pp. 23–24.
  16. ↑ Kurjack 1953, p. 207.
  17. ↑ Carey 1978, pp. 357–358.
  18. ↑ Carey 1978, p. 361.
  19. ↑ Griffin 1893, p. 58.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Griffin 1893, pp. 54–56.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Griffin 1893, pp. 68–70, 79.
  22. ↑ Griffin 1893, pp. 74–82.
  23. ↑ Griffin 1893, pp. 87–96.
  24. ↑ Griffin 1893, pp. 103–107.
  25. ↑ Griffin 1893, pp. 97–99.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Shea 1888, p. 661.
  27. ↑ Griffin 1893, p. 112.
  28. ↑ Griffin 1893, pp. 126–127.


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