Michael Power (bishop)

Catholic bishop

Michael Power (October 17, 1804 – October 1, 1847) was the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Toronto.

Michael Power was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada to Captain William and Mary Roach Power, immigrants from Waterford, Ireland. At the age of twelve he was sent to the Seminary of St. Sulpice, Montreal and completed his training at the Seminary of Quebec. He was ordained a priest on August 19, 1827 in Montreal by Bishop John Dubois of New York. He served as a missionary priest of the Archdiocese of Québec and the Diocese of Montréal. Father Power was appointed pastor at Drummondville, where he remained until 1831 when he was sent as pastor to Montebello. From 1833 to 1839 he was pastor of Sainte Martine, near Valleyfield. In 1839 he was appointed Vicar General of Montréal.

The diocese was created on December 17, 1841 out of the Diocese of Kingston. Father Power was appointed the first Bishop of the new See, and consecrated in 1842 in Laprairie, Quebec, by Bishop Rémi Gaulin of Kingston. Power was the first English speaking Bishop to be born in Canada. In January 1847 Power left on a six month visit to Europe, seeking to recruit additional priests and to raise money for his cathedral. While in Ireland he arranged for the Sisters of Loreto to establish a mission in Toronto. He also witnessed the famine that was driving unprecedented numbers of Irish to emigrate.

More than 90,000 landed at Quebec in 1847 to escape the Great Famine. Typhus was rife among them and spread to the Canadian towns, including Toronto. Power contracted the disease while administering the Last Sacraments and caring for the victims of typhus and succumbed to it on 1 October 1847. A contributor to the film, Mark G. McGowan also wrote a book, Death or Canada: The Irish Famine Migration to Toronto, 1847. A high school in Toronto, Michael Power High School, was founded in 1957 by the Basilian Fathers initially known as St. Francis High School and later Bishop Power High School.