Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-10-12
Remarkable Rise
of Arch Bishop
CurleY of Baltimore

Tampa, Fla, Oct. 11-Ten years
priest, all of them in Florida, and
seven years the bishop of this do
cese, proceeded by four years in the
Propaganda University at Rome,
comprise the meteoric career of the
Young Archbishop of Baltimore, who
will ascend the throne long graced by
the great Gibbons, on November 80.
Tomorrow Archbishop Curley will
celebrate his 42nd birthday.
Michael Joseph Curley was born in
Athlone, County Westmeath, Ireland.
October IL, 1879. one of ten children
and a happy boyhood included among
his playmates the celebrated tenor
John Mccormack. Devoted to his
ambition to become a churchman-
first determined upon, he says at the
age of tcn-the new archbishop's ca
reer may hs said to have begun at
sixteen when he rode for the first
time on a train. his first trip away
from home carrying him to Limerick
to the College of Mungret in 1895.
From then on his rise has been
steady.
His early home life and success in
school perhaps may have predicated
a more than ordinary career for the
prelatc- to-be. His parents were
fairly comfortable farmers. The
River Shannon flowed through his
fathers holdings and at times flooded
them.
His early education was received
in the intermediate schools of his
native town. Ele attended a school
conducted by the Marist brothers,
French, teaching congregation, and
had an unusual opportunity with
them to follow a classical course. He
was studying the dead languages of
Caesar and Cicero as we'll as
the living fiery language of
Clemenceau and Niviani when he
was but nine years old. AT twelve
| he had been awarded a first grade
| certificate in elementary chemistry.
| photography and mathematics by
| the Science and Art Board of South
| kensington. London, which board
| bad an examining center in Athlone.
! Going to Limerick at sixteen, he
| pursued the course outlined by the
| Royal Irish University and in 1900
with high honors recorded through
out his college course, he was given
| his degree in mental and moral sci
cnce. His course included classics.
logic, metaphysics, ethics. natural
theology. psychology. and history of
| philosophy
With his ambition for priesthood
before him, he realized that there
We're other fields where a Young
churchman might be more needle:
than in Ireland. while l loved the
! Old land" as he puts it, "and its
warm hearted people. lonced to
! consecratc my life to the service of
God and my fellow mon, in some part
OF tho world where Catholics were
less fortunately situated from the re-
isious standpoint than in Ireland"
lie applied for post and gladly ac-
| cepted an assignment to the mission
of Florida, and by order Of the late
Bishop Moore Of st. Augustine, went
to Rome to study sacred science in
! preparation for his priestly work in
the Land Of Flowers.
He entered the Propaganda Uni
versity of Rome in 1900, where he
had an opportunity of meeting and
+ mlnSling with students from everv
| part of the world. Forty-five Ian
guages or dialects were spoken in
| the university. He was given full
marks in almost every examination,
In 1901 he received the Bachelor of
| Divinity degree. and in 1903 the de-
/ Stec Of licentiate of sacred theology.
| He was awarded medals n Christian
archaeology, liturgy. fundamental the
/ "Iogy, dosmatic theology and Scrip
| ture.
| In the fall of 1903 he suffered a So
we're attack of ncurasthenia of the
/ brain, induced by his heavy work
and was forbidden by his doctor and
his bishop to present himself for fur
! Their degrees. He relaxed his zeal in
! his studies, rested several months
and then continued He was or
daincd priest by Cardinal Parochi
| .jarch 10, 1901 in the Basilica of st.
! Holm Lateran During the greater
part of his stay in Rome the rector
Of the university was then Monsignor
| Cater CardinaD Commassei
| Il always look back on my days in
Rome as the happiest of my life" the
| archbishop told The Associated Press