Fr. Thomas O'Gorman Presidential Records

Thomas O'Gorman was born in Boston, MA on May 1, 1843.  His family moved to St. Paul in April 1852.  There he entered Bishop Cretin's Cathedral School.  The Bishop was so impressed with O'Gorman that he sent him (along with John Ireland) to study in France at the minor seminary in Meximieux and the major seminary at Montbel.  O'Gorman was ordained into the priesthood on November 5, 1865 by Bishop Grace.  He served in parishes in Rochester and Faribult, MN and as a Paulist missionary in New York City (1877 - 1882) before being named rector of the St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary (the precursor of the College of St. Thomas) in August 1885.  O'Gorman served as rector only until 1887, but remained on the faculty as a professor until 1892.  In that year, he accepted a position as a professor of Church History at the new Catholic University of America.  On April 19, 1896, he was consecrated Bishop of Sioux Falls, SD.  He served in this position until his death in 1921.