EGAN, MICHAEL (1806-1887)

EGAN, MICHAEL, Catholic missionary and parish priest, Nelson, 1833-87; b. Co. Kilkenny, Ireland, 21 Dec 1806; ordained 1829; d. Nelson, 26 Aug 1887.

Michael Egan received his theological training in continental Europe and spent four years as a priest in the Kilkenny district in Ireland. In 1833 he and Father Richard Veriker crossed the Atlantic together in response to a letter written to their bishop in Ireland by Angus B. MacEachern, bishop of Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and the Magdalen Islands. Bishop MacEachern's letter contained a plea for priests for the rapidly-growing Irish population of northern New Brunswick. Upon arrival Egan was posted to Saint John, but he was transferred to the Miramichi a few months later, as successor to Father William Dollard.

For several years Egan was the only priest on the Miramichi and in adjacent parts of the North Shore. His home base was St Patrick's Church at Nelson, but he travelled constantly on foot and by horse and canoe throughout the district, as well as by sailing ship to Chaleur Bay and elsewhere. In each settlement at a distance from Nelson he had a 'station', usually a room set aside in a private home, in which he would hear confessions, conduct baptisms, and carry out his other priestly functions. His name appears in church registers from the 1830s at Neguac, Tracadie, Pokemouche, Inkerman, West Bathurst, and Belledune, as well as in the registers of churches in the various Miramichi settlements, two of the oldest of which are those of Our Lady of Mount Carmel at The Forks (1837) and St Thomas the Apostle at Red Bank (1841).

In a lyrical tribute to Egan, Father William Morriscy likened his role among the early settlers to that of the "Soggarth Aroon," the 'beloved priest', of Irish song. "The newly-arrived," he stated, "who squatted on the wilderness lands from the head of the Miramichi to the mouth of the Restigouche, from Bay du Vin to Pokemouche and Grand Anse, were cheered in their exile and made to forget that they were far away from their native land, by the rich Irish accent of their beloved 'Soggarth Aroon'."



Who, in the winter's night,

Soggarth Aroon,

When the could blast did bite,

Soggarth Aroon,

Came to my cabin-door

And, on my earthen-flure,

Knelt by me, sick and poor,

Soggarth Aroon?

Who, on the marriage-day,

Soggarth Aroon,

Made the poor cabin gay,

Soggarth Aroon -

And did both laugh and sing,

Making our hearts to ring,

At the poor christening,

Soggarth Aroon?



- John Banim



Between 1838 and 1842 Egan was assisted at Chatham, where the first Catholic church opened on 17 March 1839, by his old friend Father Veriker. In 1843 Chatham became the separate parish of St Michael's, named in honor of Egan's patron saint, St Michael the Archangel. Afterwards, the Chatham priest attended the missions of Bartibog and Burnt Church, but Egan continued to serve the Barnaby River, Newcastle, Red Bank, Renous, and Blackville missions, until additional priests were brought to the diocese in the mid 1860s by Bishop James Rogers. Although his spelling and penmanship left much to be desired, his entries in the registers of the different churches constitute a large proportion of the vital records of the 19th century Catholic population of the Miramichi.

To quote Father William C. Gaynor, Egan was "a magnificent figure of a man, athletic, strenuous, and utterly fearless," and his presence on the Miramichi in the harsh times in which he served was "more effective than a company of soldiers." He was, noted Gaynor, "as much feared and respected by Protestants as by his own people, and when the occasion arose he was equally impartial in wielding his blackthorn on Catholic and Dissenter alike." He was famous for "his strong common sense, which eschewed all exaggerations and vagaries," and his humorous outbursts and fits of rage were equally legendary. His non-pastoral activities were necessarily restricted, but he accepted appointment as one of three Indian commissioners in the county in 1838, and he was responsible for the founding of the Catholic Temperance Society in 1841.

The coming of Bishop Rogers in 1860 marked the end of a lengthy period in which Egan was the leading Catholic cleric on the river. Rogers acknowledged his seniority by appointing him vicar-general of the diocese in 1861, but for reasons unspecified in his correspondence he reprimanded him sternly two years later. "You were hard enough with Father Egan," observed Archbishop Thomas L. Connolly in 1863, "and he deserved all he got." It was said that Egan was prone to abuse alcohol and induce younger priests to drink. Father Hugh McGuirk, a priest in Kent County who suffered a nervous breakdown around 1870, referred to him as "an old rummy...drunk and staggering" whose "grog shop" was "nearly opposite his church." McGuirk's perceptions might be questioned, since during his illness he saw most of the priests of the diocese as morally or sexually corrupt.

From the 1860s onward Egan was a parish priest rather than a roving missionary. He remained vicar-general until 1880, when he was succeeded by Father Thomas F. Barry. As noted elsewhere, his grandnephew, Father Nicholas Power, became curate at Nelson in 1882 and later his successor. His unique standing among Miramichi priests was reflected in the splendid silver jubilee celebration that was staged for him in 1879, at which John H. Templeton directed the band of the 73rd Battalion in a stirring rendition of "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls." And in his funeral in 1887, when Bishop Rogers spoke in praise of the "varied and manifold merits" of the deceased, Father William Varrily preached a moving sermon, and "the choir of St Mary's Church, under Emilie Lecavalier (Sister St Antonine), in concert with a large body of priests, gave "a solemn rendering of the grand old Gregorian Chant."