Background
He was born Michael Haid on July 15, 1849, near Latrobe, Pennsylvania, to a family of German immigrants.
He was born Michael Haid on July 15, 1849, near Latrobe, Pennsylvania, to a family of German immigrants.
He studied at Saint Vincent Seminary in Latrobe and there became a novice of the Benedictine Archabbey of Saint Vincent in 1868.
He made first profession as a monk on September 17, 1869, and was ordained a priest on December 21, 1872, serving the monastery college thereafter as professor and chaplain. Haid was sent to North Carolina in the late 1870s to help in the founding of the new Monastery and College of Saint Mary"s (now Belmont Abbey College) which had been founded by the archabbey in April 1876. On February 4, 1888 he was appointed Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina and was ordained bishop by Baltimore Cardinal Archbishop James Gibbons on July 1, 1888, becoming the first American abbot-bishop.
Haid served as president of the American Cassinese Congregation from 1890-1902 and was a prominent authority on monastic life in the United States.
He helped establish and supervise Benedictine foundations in Virginia, Georgia, and Florida. On June 8, 1910 Pope Pius X erected Belmont Abbey as a territorial abbey and appointed Haid abbot nullius with canonical jurisdiction over eight counties in North Carolina (Gaston, Catawba, Cleveland, Burke, Lincoln, McDowell, Polk, and Rutherford).
Haid died at Belmont Abbey July 24, 1924, aged 75, and was buried in the abbey cemetery.