Patrick Thomas O'Reilly

Patrick Thomas O'Reilly was born in County Cavan, Ireland, on Christmas Day 1833, then carried that dark winter night into Massachusetts, where he became the first bishop of Springfield. He laid cornerstones for nearly one hundred buildings, helped grow the diocese from ninety thousand Catholics to two hundred thousand, and left behind a region shaped by churches, schools, hospitals and orphanages. A boy from Cavan became the skeleton of a new American diocese.