Michael Verdon was the 2nd Catholic Bishop of Dunedin from.
22 Facts About Michael Verdon
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Michael Verdon was a nephew of Cardinal Cullen, Archbishop of Dublin, and a first cousin of Cardinal Moran, Archbishop of Sydney.
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Michael Verdon received his early education in Castleknock College, Dublin, conducted by the Vincentian Fathers.
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In 1861, Michael Verdon was appointed a professor in the ecclesiastical seminary of Dublin, the Holy Cross College, Clonliffe, of which nine years later, he became president.
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Michael Verdon enlarged the buildings there, constructed a "magnificent church" and considerably improved the quality of the teaching to raise the prestige of the college.
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Michael Verdon then joined the staff of the Irish College in Rome, where as vice-rector he made improvements and was raised to the dignity of a domestic prelate.
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At the Provincial Council, held in Sydney in 1895, he was elected by the Bishops of Australia to represent them and act as their agent in Rome, and, in February 1896 when he had reached Melbourne on his way there, Michael Verdon received news of his appointment to the see of Dunedin.
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Michael Verdon was consecrated bishop in St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin, on Sunday, 3 May 1896, by Cardinal Moran, assisted by Archbishop Redwood of Wellington, Bishop Murray of Maitland and Bishop Grimes of Christchurch.
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On 12 December 1909 Michael Verdon ordained the first six priests from the seminary.
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Michael Verdon took no part in public affairs but confined himself to church matters.
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Michael Verdon encouraged new schools established by the Dominican sisters.
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Michael Verdon introduced the Sisters of Mercy in South Dunedin, where they established the St Vincent de Paul Orphanage and St Philomena's College.
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Michael Verdon invited the Little Sisters of the Poor to Dunedin to care for the aged poor.
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In 1918, in the midst of the influenza epidemic, Michael Verdon went to Rotorua for health reasons and improved greatly there.
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Michael Verdon died at St Gerard's Redemptorist Monastery, Wellington on 23 November 1918, aged 79.
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Michael Verdon was interred in the Southern Cemetery alongside his predecessor Bishop Moran in the mausoleum erected for the first bishop of Dunedin.
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Michael Verdon was a large man with a massive frame, but he shunned publicity and was not widely known outside the Catholic community.
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Michael Verdon's delight was in building new churches, expanding Catholic education and in philanthropy.
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Michael Verdon had "simple tastes, a singularly winning manner, deep sympathies, and profound wisdom".
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Michael Verdon encouraged his priests to wear Roman clerical garb and to decorate their churches "in the fashion of contemporaneous Roman basilicas".
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Michael Verdon had great reverence for the Italian Catholic Reformation Sants, Philip Neri and Charles Borromeo.
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Michael Verdon preferred to send talented seminarians to Rome for further training and he decorated Holy Cross College in a very Roman way.