When John McCloskey was born in Brooklyn in 1810, there was only one Catholic Church in the New York City area, St. Peter’s on Barclay Street in Manhattan.  To obtain a Catholic education, he was sent to Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he was tutored by fellow student John Hughes.  He was expected to become a lawyer but instead was called to the priesthood and ordained by Bishop Dubois in New York in 1834.
Within ten years, he served in several parishes, undertook advanced studies in Rome, became the first president of St. John’s College, now Fordham University, and served as coadjuctor bishop for his former tutor, John Hughes.  By 1846, there were enough Catholics upstate to divide New York into three dioceses, and McCloskey was tapped for Albany.
Returning to succeed Archbishop Hughes in 1864, McCloskey found a city at war, an unfinished cathedral on Fifth Avenue and, within two years, a fire-ravaged one on Mulberry Street.  He dedicated himself to becoming the Archdiocese’s master builder: to restore the interior of Old St. Patrick’s and to build churches, schools, orphanages and hospitals. 
It is for was the completion of St. Patrick’s Cathedral that he is best remembered.  By 1878, the structure was ready for use, and now-Cardinal McCloskey created the “Great Cathedral Fair” to run for a month in late fall to raise money to finalize the project that had begun twenty years before.  Forty-five parishes of the Diocese took tables, and the Fair was the toast of the town, not only sold arts and crafts and food but also offering smoking lounges for men and a shooting gallery and pony rides in the vestibule for children.  These activities raised $170,000 for finishing and furnishing the interior.  The Cathedral was dedicated in May of 1879 and was soon enhanced by a marble pulpit presented to McCloskey on the 50th anniversary of his ordination.

Michael Augustine Corrigan was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1839 to prosperous parents who had emigrated from Ireland.  He graduated from Mount Saint Mary’s College in Emmitsburg, Maryland in 1859.  A member of the first class at the North American College in Rome, he was ordained to the priesthood in September 1863, receiving a doctorate of divinity the following year.
Corrigan returned to New Jersey in 1864, serving on the faculty and as president of Seton Hall College and as Bishop of Newark from 1873.  In 1880, he crossed the Hudson to become Coadjuctor Archbishop to John Cardinal McCloskey of New York and succeeded to the archbishopric on October 10, 1885.  His relationships with both Pope Leo XIII and Tammany Hall were both helpful and, occasionally, controversial.
The new Archbishop gave St. Patrick’s Cathedral the form we recognize today. Corrigan added the distinctive spires and their supporting towers to the Cathedral’s front elevation on Fifth Avenue, thus making the Cathedral the tallest building in New York City. In 1901, he authorized the start of construction of the Lady Chapel, designed by architect Charles T. Mathews, annexed on the eastern side of the building.
Corrigan expanded the academic calibre and reputation of seminary education. A new seminary at Dunwoodie in Westchester County was built between 1891 and 1898.  Corrigan insisted that the institution adopt a rigorous curriculum and practice rigid discipline to the point that it soon became known as the “West Point of American Catholic Seminaries.”
In the 1880s and 1890s, waves of immigrants came to New York from Italy, many from the impoverished southern regions and speaking dialects other than the Italian language. Corrigan became a strong supporter of national parishes and a vocal opponent of those who advocated “Americanization.”  He welcomed Mother Frances X. Cabrini and her Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, who built and staffed orphanages and schools for immigrant children.

Born in County Armagh, Ireland, in 1842, John Farley was orphaned at seven.  An uncle helped him emigrate to the United States in 1864 and attend St. John’s College, now Fordham University.  He began his studies for the priesthood at St. Joseph’s Provincial Seminary in Troy, New York.   Sent to continue his studies at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, he was ordained there in 1870.  After several years as a parish curate, Farley became secretary to Cardinal John McCloskey; he then served as a pastor before becoming vicar general for the Archdiocese of New York from 1891 to 1902 and auxiliary bishop from 1895 to 1902, when he succeeded Archbishop Corrigan.  
Farley completed the Lady Chapel in 1908, in time for the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Diocese of New York.  After the addition of stained glass windows in 1909, Farley turned his talents as a fundraiser to the Cathedral’s estimated $850,000 ($4 million in today’s dollars) debt, which he paid off within a year.  Fittingly, in 1911 he presided at its consecration and was appointed Cardinal later that year.
Throughout his tenure, Farley established nearly fifty new parochial schools, more than 40 of them in his first eight years; he also founded the Cathedral Preparatory Seminary.  These new schools were needed to educate a rising number of new immigrants--Italian and Eastern European immigration peaked between 1901 and 1910 (802,200 from Italy, 608,400 from Poland and 553,000 from the Austro-Hungarian Empire).  Mass immigration finally ended with the outbreak of World War I in 1914.  A tireless advocate for men in the armed services, Farley did not live to see the Armistice. He died in September of 1918.

Born in the Five Points section of Manhattan in 1867 Patrick Hayes was raised by an aunt and uncle after his mother’s death and father’s remarriage.  These relatives ran a grocery store where Hayes worked.  Destined for more, the young Hayes attended Manhattan College in Riverdale, and then entered St. Joseph’s Seminary in Troy, New York in 1888.  Hayes was ordained in 1892 and sent to a parish on the Lower East Side, where he served under John Murphy Farley, whom he would later succeed as Archbishop of New York.  Hayes served as Archbishop Farley’s private secretary from 1895 to 1903.  Later, he was appointed Chancellor of the Archdiocese and Rector of the Cathedral College.
Following the death of Cardinal John Farley, Hayes became the fifth archbishop of New York in 1919 was elevated to Cardinal in 1924.  During his tenure, Hayes created the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York in 1920, to coordinate and supervise the different charities within the archdiocese as well as fundraise for them.  This accomplishment gave him the nickname, “The Cardinal of Charities.”  
These charities would be tested when the optimistic Jazz Age, which saw Al Smith, the Catholic Governor of New York, nominated for the Presidency in 1928, collapsed into the Great Depression a year later.  A great ally of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Hayes focused on doing more with fewer resources to help his struggling flock.
He also undertook extensive renovation of the 50-year-old Cathedral’s interior between 1927 and 1931.  Upgrades to the sanctuary and choir gallery were made as well as the additions of the chancel and gallery organs, new baptistery, and nave flooring and pews.   The improvements made, he hosted Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) for a visit in 1936. 

Born in rural Whitman, Massachusetts, in 1889, Francis Spellman was educated in local public schools.  After graduating from Fordham University in New York City in 1911, Spellman decided to study for the priesthood at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.  During his studies, Spellman befriended a number of men who would rise to leadership positions in the Church, most notably the future Pope Pius XII.
Boston’s Cardinal William Henry O’Connell did not take to the young priest, whom he gave a series of administrative assignments rather than parish duties.  Even so, Spellman’s charisma and talent helped him to become the first American attaché of the Vatican Secretariat of State. In 1925, his anti-Mussolini activities compelled him to return home.  In 1932, he was consecrated by his good friend, now-Cardinal Pacelli, and returned to Boston to become an auxiliary bishop to Cardinal O’Connell.
Pacelli was elected Pope in 1939 and soon appointed Spellman the sixth Archbishop of New York.  During his tenure in New York, Spellman’s considerable national influence in religious and political matters earned his residence the nickname of “the Powerhouse.”  He enjoyed close friendships with other men of power, most significantly Franklin Roosevelt.  Spellman was named Cardinal in 1946.
Despite wartime shortages of manpower and materials, between 1941 and 1947 Spellman restored the Cathedral exterior and repaired the marble exterior façade.  He also completed the stained-glass windows and the new main altar and added new upper windows, the bronze doors, a new high altar and a new Lady Chapel altar. 
Active and outspoken politically, Spellman supported Richard Nixon over John Kennedy as more likely to advance the Catholic agenda. He supported the war in Vietnam, and welcomed a yet another wave of newcomers, this time from Puerto Rico.

Terence Cooke was born to immigrants from Galway in Morningside Heights and raised in the Northeast Bronx.  He expressed an early interest in the priesthood and entered the minor seminary of the Archdiocese of New York in 1934.  In 1940, he entered St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers and was ordained by Cardinal Spellman five years later. 
In his first years as priest, he served with Catholic Charities, Fordham University and St. Joseph’s Seminary before becoming the Cardinal’s secretary in 1957; he rose to Diocesan Chancellor, Vicar General and auxiliary bishop.  He played a major role in arranging Pope Paul IV’s visit in 1965 and was consecrated Archbishop of New York in 1968 and Cardinal the following year.
Cooke managed decades of turmoil.  Protests, riots, assassinations and a presidential resignation marked the era politically.   Abortion became legal and divorce commonplace, developments that challenged Catholic teaching.   A million middle-class people fled New York City and the tax base collapsed, fueling a financial crisis.  One bright spot was the appointment of the first black pastor, Fr. Harold Salmon, at St. Charles Borromeo in Harlem in July 1968.
Between 1968 and 1983, three quarters of the 8,955 teaching sisters died, retired or left the classroom, and often religious life.  The number of active priests declined from 1,252 in 1969 to 777 in 1983.
The hundred-year-old cathedral was showing its age.  Major repairs were needed—the entire interior of the Cathedral was restored beginning in 1972 and exterior renovations were completed for the Cathedral’s 100th anniversary and the first visit of Pope John Paul II in 1979.  Shrines in honor of the American saints were also added. 
The Cardinal’s own saintliness impressed not only his own flock but many of his countrymen, including President and Mrs. Reagan, who visited him on his deathbed.

Born in 1920 in Philadelphia, John O’Connor attended public schools until his junior year of high school, when he enrolled in West Philadelphia Catholic High School for Boys.  St. Charles Borromeo Seminary followed, and he was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in 1945.  For the next seven years he served as a parish priest.
O’Connor joined the United States Navy Chaplain Corps in 1952, during the Korean War, and rose through the ranks to become a rear admiral and Chief of Chaplains of the Navy.  In 1979, Pope John Paul II appointed O’Connor as auxiliary bishop of the Military Vicariate for the United States.  In 1983, he re-entered civilian life as the Bishop of Scranton, Pennsylvania.  He was appointed Archbishop of New York in 1984 and consecrated as Cardinal the following year.
Throughout his tenure, O’Connor made improvements to the structural integrity of the Cathedral by replacing the roof and exterior steps; he also oversaw the rebuilding of the organs, added television monitors, and restored the bells.The 1980s were another challenging decade, both for the country and the city.  New York’s financial crisis began to abate, but not before a blight of homelessness occurred.  That crisis  was barely under control when the new viral infection, AIDS, began to devastate the population.  Instability in South and Central America brought a new wave of immigration.  
A staunch upholder of Catholic doctrine and tradition, O’Connor was also a caring and compassionate leader who condemned anti-Semitism, helped to restore racial harmony after the police shooting of Amadou Diallo, and created the Inner-City Scholarship Fund, which now provides more than eight thousand scholarships each year to Catholic elementary and high schools.  
The Cardinal died in 2000.  Later, his sister’s genealogical research revealed that their mother had converted from Judaism before her marriage. 

Edward Egan’s childhood was stereotypically mid-century American.  Born in 1932, he was several generations away from a hardscrabble immigrant experience; his father was a sales manager and his mother, a homemaker.  He contracted polio, then a relatively common disease and missed two years of school.  Realizing his vocation, Egan entered St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, and completed  his studies for the priesthood at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.  After ordination in 1957, he rose rapidly through the ranks of the Archdiocese of Chicago.  He also served in Rome before becoming auxiliary bishop of New York in 1985 and bishop of Bridgeport, CT. in 1988.  In 2000 he was appointed to succeed Cardinal O’Connor and became a cardinal himself in 2001.
His archdiocese was experiencing a financial crisis.  For several years, the Archdiocese had been operating at a deficit and by 2000, the deficit was projected to reach $23 million of a $500 million budget.  Serious adjustments were called for and made.  Catholic Charities, schools and churches—nothing escaped the scrutiny of the investment, audit and real estate committees.  Gradually and painfully, the financial situation steadied. 
Work on St. Patrick’s Cathedral continued with renovations to the sanctuary, the sacristy, the baldachin, and the carved wood screen around the sanctuary.  Egan restored the Lady Chapel and Saint Andrew’s Chapel, and dedicated new shrine to Our Lady of Czestochowa and various saints of Poland.  Before his mandatory retirement at 75, Cardinal Egan initiated a desperately needed major restoration of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Significant events were commemorated both early and late in the Cardinal’s tenure.  He presided over a memorial mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for the victims of the 9/11 attacks, on September 16, 2001.  Happier moments came when the Archdiocese celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2008.

Growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was born in 1950, Timothy Dolan exhibited a strong interest in the priesthood from an early age, saying, “I can never remember a time I didn’t want to be a priest.”   After receiving his baccalaureate degree, he continued his studies in Rome at the Pontifical North American College.  Ordained in 1976, his resume includes further studies, pastoral work and diocesan administration.  He became the auxiliary bishop of St. Louis in 2001 and Archbishop of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2002. 
Dolan was named the tenth Archbishop of New York by Pope Benedict XVI to serve more than 2.5 million Roman Catholics.  He was formally installed in April 2009, wearing the pectoral cross used by his 19th-century predecessor John Hughes.   A year and a half later, he was elected as president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, positioning him to articulate the Church’s teachings in the nation’s ongoing culture wars.  When Cardinal Egan reached 80 in 2012, the mantle of the Cardinalate became Dolan’s and it was Cardinal Dolan who participated in the election of the first pope, Francis I, to succeed a living predecessor. 
Fortunate to inherit a balanced budget and no debt from Cardinal Egan, Dolan nevertheless had to deal with the difficulties of the Great Recession.  With great regret, he closed numerous schools and merged parishes, whenever possible leasing, not selling, property.  
Cardinal Dolan is best known for the restoration of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  Despite numerous earlier renovations and restorations, the building, begun 150 years before, needed stabilization, updating and cleaning on a massive scale.  Begun in 2012, now completed, and blessed by Pope Francis in his 2015 visit to New York, the cathedral is ready for its next hundred years of service as “America’s Parish Church.”