McCLOSKEY, JOHN: American cardinal; b. in Brooklyn Mar. 20, 1810; d. in New York Oct. 10, 1885. He studied at Mount St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg, Md., was ordained priest is 1834, and then pursued postgraduate studies in theology at the Roman College. Returning to America in 1837 he was assigned for pariah duty to St. Joseph's Church, New York City. When St. John's College, Fordham, was opened in 1841 he was appointed its first president, but the year following he returned to his parish work at St. Joseph's. In 1844 he was appointed coadjutor to Bishop Hughes of the diocese of New York, being made titular bishop of Axiere, in partitua infidel ium. He was consecrated Mar. 10, and though assisting the bishop in his episcopal functions, he retained his position as pastor of St. Joseph's parish. In, 1847 he was transferred from New York to become the first bishop of the newly erected diocese of Albany, and this post he filled during the ensuing seventeen years. The new diocese included nearly all of the northern and eastern portions of the state of New York, and throughout this vast territory Roman Catholics were relatively few and without resources; there were in all only about forty churches and many of these were without priests. During his administration conditions were greatly improved and much was done by way of organization and development. Thus in Albany he built the fine cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, which was dedicated in 1852; new parishes were established in great numbers throughout the diocese; many schools and homes were erected, and in 1864 St. Joseph's Provincial Seminary for the training of ecclesiastical students was opened in Troy. In May of the same year he was appointed to succeed Archbishop Hughes in the metropolitan see of New York. In this capacity he attended the Vatican Council in 1870, and was a member of the committee on ecclesiastical discipline. In 1875 he was made cardinal by Pius IX. with the title of Sancta Maria supra Minervam. On the death of Pius IX. in 1878 he left for Rome. in order to attend the conclave in which Leo XIII. was elected, but arrived too late to take part in the proceedings. He had a distinguished career as s churchman, having taken an important part in the remarkable development of the Roman Catholic Church in New York during that period. He was a prelate of more than ordinary scholarship, and though mild and gentle in character, he possessed the firmness necessary to the leader, together with great executive ability

James F. Driscoll.

Bibliography: J. G. Sheer, Hist. of the Catholic Church within the Limits of the United States, vol. iv., passim, New York, 1892; Lives of the Clergy of New York and Brooklyn, ib. 1874.