Early Life and Education
Samuel Stritch was born in Nashville, Tennessee, to Garret (1841–1896) and Katherine (née O'Malley) Stritch. His mother immigrated to the United States from Ireland with her parents at a young age, and settled in Louisville, Kentucky, where the family ran a boarding house. His father came to Louisville from Dublin in 1879, boarded with the O'Malleys, and married Katherine in 1880. Garret later worked as the manager of Sycamore Mills, a subsidiary of DuPont, in Nashville. The second youngest of eight children, Samuel had two brothers and five sisters.
Considered something of a child prodigy, he finished grammar school at age 10 and high school at 14. In 1901, he entered St. Gregory's Preparatory Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio, from where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1903. Bishop Thomas Sebastian Byrne then sent Stritch to study at the Pontifical Urbanian Athenaeum De Propaganda Fide in Rome, where he resided at the Pontifical North American College. He later earned his doctorates in philosophy and in theology. While in Rome, he also befriended Eugenio Pacelli, who later became Pope Pius XII.
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