Michael Francis Egan

Biography

Born in County Kildare, Ireland, Michael Francis Egan answered a call to ministry that brought him across the Atlantic to serve the growing Catholic community of Philadelphia. When the young diocese was erected in 1808, he accepted the mantle of its first bishop and devoted himself to shaping its liturgical life and shepherding its dispersed families.

Despite limited finances and the challenges of a frontier church, he guided the flock whose worship would later be centered in the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, nurturing parochial schools and charitable outreach before his passing in 1814.