American Roman Catholic clergyman Michael Augustine Corrigan (1839-1902) was archbishop of New York during years of rapid change and expansion.

Michael Augustine Corrigan was born in Newark, N.J., the fifth of nine children of Thomas and Mary English Corrigan. His father had emigrated from Ireland in 1828 and was a successful grocer. Michael attended a private school conducted by a relative and spent 2 years at St. Mary's College, Wilmington, Del., graduating from Mount St. Mary's in Emmitsburg, Md., in 1859. Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley sent Corrigan to study for the priesthood as one of the first group of students to attend the new American College in Rome. In 1863 Corrigan was ordained a priest in Rome, and the next year he received his doctorate at the College of the Propaganda Fide.

Returning to New Jersey, Corrigan was named professor of theology and scripture at Seton Hall Seminary, and in 1868 he...