Background
James O'Connor was born on September 10, 1823, at Cobh, County Cork, Ireland.
James O'Connor was born on September 10, 1823, at Cobh, County Cork, Ireland.
James O'Connor received his early schooling at Cobh, Ireland. At about sixteen years of age, he accompanied his brother, Michael, who had just accepted the rectorship of the Seminary of St. Charles Borromeo, Philadelphia, to that city, and began his studies for the priesthood in the seminary. Sent to Rome, he completed his work in theology at the Propaganda and was ordained, March 25, 1848, by Cardinal Franzoni.
After his ordaining in Rome in 1848, James O'Connor returned to America, where he served as a missionary priest under his brother, then bishop of Pittsburgh, until 1857, when he was named to the rectorship of St. Michael's Seminary. In addition to the duties of this office, he acted as vicar-general during the bishop's absence in Europe (1859 - 1860).
In 1862 he was relieved of his assignment at the seminary by Bishop Michael Domenec, and accepted the rectorship of the Seminary of St. Charles Borromeo, which he retained until June 1872, when he was transferred to the pastorate of St. Dominic's Church, Holmesburg, Philadelphia. Four years later he was appointed second vicar-apostolic of Nebraska and consecrated as titular bishop of Dibona at the Philadelphia seminary by Patrick J. Ryan, coadjutor-bishop of St. Louis, on August 20, 1876.
Bishop O'Connor's jurisdiction, which included Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, and the Dakotas, grew rapidly with the development of the Union Pacific and Burlington railroads, and in 1885, Omaha was made a see, with O'Connor as first bishop, his diocese covering Nebraska and Wyoming. Foreseeing the importance of Omaha and cleverly distinguishing permanent from boom towns, he judiciously invested in church properties. Through the generosity of Edward Creighton and his wife Mary, he established a college in Omaha (1879), which, under Jesuit control, became Creighton University. He introduced into the diocese the Franciscan Fathers, Poor Clares, Sisters of Mercy, Religious of the Sacred Heart, Sisters of Providence, and Benedictines, thus ensuring a parochial school system. Along with Katherine Drexel of Philadelphia and Archbishop Ryan, he established the Sisters of Divine Providence (1889), for missionary work among negroes and Indians.
About the same time, he aided in organizing the Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America. A director of the Irish Catholic Colonization Association, he was deeply concerned with the Irish colony of General O'Neil and John McCreary in Greeley County, Nebraska, which centered around the town of O'Connor. Of literary remains O'Connor left little, save several articles in the Catholic Quarterly Review.
James O'Connol was a director of the Irish Catholic Colonization Association.
O'Connor also established the Sisters of Divine Providence (1889), for missionary work among negroes and Indians, and aided in organizing the Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America.
A man of simple habits and marked ability, James O'Connor won the frontiersmen and retained their good will. Approachable, he ruled his priests with tact, never disturbing any "man who does an honest day's work. "
Quotes from others about the person
At the time of O'Connor's death the Daily World-Herald (May 28, 1890) depicted him, editorially, as follows: "A scholar, liberal, though churchly, ambitious yet not arrogant, broadly charitable, actively beneficent, daring yet not aggressive, he stood for the best that can be represented by the churchman in this country. "