Michael Corrigan - Early Life

Early Life

Born in Newark, New Jersey, the fifth of nine children of Thomas and Mary English Corrigan, both of whom had emigrated from Ireland. Thomas Corrigan owned a retail grocery and liquor business in Newark, and the family's well-to-do status allowed Michael to pursue his educational interests. He attended St. Mary's College in Wilmington, Delaware, from 1853–1855, Mount Saint Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Maryland from 1855–1857, spent a year in Europe, and ultimately received his baccalaureate from Mount Saint Mary's in 1859. He thereafter became a member of the first class at the North American College in Rome, was ordained to the priesthood in 1863, and received the doctorate of divinity in 1864.

Corrigan returned to New Jersey in 1864, where he joined the faculty at Seton Hall College and the Immaculate Conception Seminary, both located in South Orange, as professor of theology and history. He soon achieved a reputation within the hierarchy for sound scholarship, and he also provided pastoral care to Catholics in the Seton Hall vicinity. When Bernard J. McQuaid left Seton Hall in 1869 to assume his duties as bishop of the Diocese of Rochester, Corrigan succeeded him as president of that institution and also became vicar general of the Diocese of Newark.