Patrick William Riordan

infobox bishopstyles
name=Patrick William Riordan
dipstyle=The Most Reverend
offstyle=Your Excellency
relstyle=Bishop
deathstyle=none |

Patrick William Riordan (August 27, 1841 – December 27, 1914) was a Roman Catholic priest and the second Archbishop of San Francisco.

Riordan (1841–1914) was born in Chatham, New Brunswick, on August 27, 1841, to Matthew Riordan and Mary Dunne. Riordan studied at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana; the Pontifical North American College in Rome; the Colonial Seminary in Paris; and the American College of the Immaculate Conception, Leuven, Belgium. He was a member of the first class at the Pontifical North American College. He was ordained to the priesthood by Englebert Cardinal Stercks, (Archbishop of Mechelen) on June 10, 1865, for the Archdiocese of Chicago. He left Belgium for Chicago on October 10, 1866. He served as a professor of theology at the Seminary of St. Mary of the Lake, and as a pastor in Joliet and Chicago.

He was appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of San Francisco and Titular Bishop of Casaba on July 17, 1883. He was consecrated to the episcopate on September 16, 1883, and succeeded to the see on December 21, 1884. Riordan built the second, St. Mary's Cathedral (1891-1962) on Van Ness Avenue. He established Saint Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park, California.

He died, December 27, 1914, in San Francisco, California. He is buried in the Archbishop's Crypt at Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma. Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco, California, is named for him.

ources

*Gaffey, James P. "Citizen of No Mean City: Archbishop Patrick Riordan of San Francisco (1841-1914)", Wilmington, North Carolina: A Consortium Book, 1976. ISBN:0-8434-0628-3
*Thomas F. Meehan, [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13439c.htm "San Francisco"] , "Catholic Encyclopedia", 1911
* [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/briordan.html "Archbishop Patrick William Riordan"] , "www.Catholic-Hierarchy.org", retrieved January 15, 2006