John McCloskey was an American senior-ranking prelate of the Catholic Church.
23 Facts About John McCloskey
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John McCloskey was the first American-born Archbishop of New York from 1864 until his death in 1885, having previously served as Bishop of Albany.
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John McCloskey served as the first president of St John's College, now Fordham University, beginning in 1841.
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John McCloskey was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Patrick and Elizabeth McCloskey, who had immigrated to the United States from County Londonderry, Ireland, shortly after their marriage in 1808.
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John McCloskey moved with his family to Manhattan in 1817, and then entered the Latin school run by Thomas Brady, father of attorney James T Brady and Judge John R Brady.
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John McCloskey became the ward of Cornelius Heeney, a wealthy merchant and friend of the family.
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The 11-year-old McCloskey, after a brief visit with Rev John Dubois, entered Mount St Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Maryland, in September 1821.
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John McCloskey received the tonsure, minor orders, and subdiaconate all from Bishop Francis Kenrick.
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John McCloskey thus became the first native New Yorker to enter the diocesan priesthood.
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John McCloskey then served as a parochial vicar at St Patrick's Cathedral and a chaplain at Bellevue Hospital until February 1834, when he became professor of philosophy and vice-president at the newly established St Joseph's Seminary in Nyack.
11.
John McCloskey expressed his desire to minister to the victims of the cholera epidemic in New York City, but Bishop Dubois, at the suggestion of Heeney, instead sent him to Rome to strengthen his health and to further his studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University and University of the Sapienza.
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From August 1837 to March 1844, John McCloskey served as pastor of St Joseph's Church in Greenwich Village.
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John McCloskey showed concern for the needs of the homeless children living in Greenwich Village.
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John McCloskey busied himself primarily with a visitation of the entire diocese, and was instrumental in the conversion of Isaac Hecker, founder of the Paulist Fathers, and of James Roosevelt Bayley, later Archbishop of Baltimore.
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John McCloskey was named the first Bishop of the newly erected Diocese of Albany by Pope Pius IX on May 21,1847.
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John McCloskey's flock was made up largely of poor, uneducated Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Famine.
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John McCloskey first selected St Mary's Church as his episcopal see but it soon proved unsuitable, leading him to construct the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, whose cornerstone was laid in July 1848 and dedication took place in November 1852.
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John McCloskey attended the First Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1852, convened the first diocesan synod in October 1855, and was named an Assistant at the Pontifical Throne in 1862.
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John McCloskey introduced the Jesuits, Franciscans, Capuchins, Religious of the Sacred Heart, Sisters of Charity, Sisters of Mercy, Sisters of St Joseph, and the De La Salle Christian Brothers into the diocese.
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John McCloskey, following the end of the Civil War in 1865, resumed the construction of the new cathedral begun under his predecessor; he later dedicated it in May 1879.
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The Cathedral rebuilding project was completed in full by March 13,1868, and rededicated four days later on St Patrick's Day by Archbishop John McCloskey, and assisted by the pastor of the Cathedral, Father William Starrs.
22.
John McCloskey's 21-year-long tenure as Archbishop of New York was a productive one.
23.
John McCloskey established several charitable societies for children and a hospital for the mentally ill.