Background
John Farrelly was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to John and Martha (née Clay) Farrelly. His father was a member of the Tennessee General Assembly, and his grandfather was one of the authors of the original Arkansas Constitution.
John Farrelly was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to John and Martha (née Clay) Farrelly. His father was a member of the Tennessee General Assembly, and his grandfather was one of the authors of the original Arkansas Constitution.
After studying at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., he entered Notre-Dame de la Paix at Namur, Belgium, in 1873 and completed his studies at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, from where he obtained a Doctor of Sacred Theology.
Farrelly was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Raffaele Monaco La Valletta on May 22, 1880. After touring Egypt and the Holy Land, he returned to Tennessee in 1882 and became a curate (and later pastor) at the Cathedral of Nashville. He was named chancellor of the Diocese of Nashville in 1883, and secretary of the American bishops at Rome in September 1887. While in Rome, he also served as spiritual director of the North American College (1893–1909).
On March 18, 1909, Farrelly was appointed the fourth Bishop of Cleveland, Ohio, by Pope Pius X. He received his episcopal consecration on the following May 1 from Cardinal Girolamo Maria Gotti, O.C.D., with Bishops John Baptist Morris and Thomas Francis Kennedy serving as co-consecrators.