Jeremiah O'Callaghan

Jeremiah O'Callaghan (1780-1861) was an Irish Roman Catholic priest who served in Vermont, U.S.A., known as the Apostle of Vermont.[1] Born in 1780 near Macroom, Co. Cork. O'Callaghan, was educated at St. Patrick's, Carlow College[2] before being ordained by Bishop William Coppinger in 1805 and serving in Cork in the Diocese of Cloyne and Ross[3] for ten years before going to the United States. O'Callaghan was sent to Burlington, Vermont by Benedict Joseph Fenwick S.J. in 1830 as the first resident priest.[4] In 1833, Father O'Callaghan had St. Mary's church built in St. Albans, north of Burlington.[5] In Vermont Fr. O'Callaghan was known for his campaign against Usury.

In 1834, O'Callaghan self-published a book (entitled Usury, Funds, and Banks : Also, Forestalling Traffick, and Monopoly, Likewise Pew Rent, and Grave Tax, Together with Burking and Dissecting, as well as Gallican Liberties, are all Repugnant to the Divine and Ecclesiastical Laws, and Destructive to Civil Society, to which is prefixed, A Narrative of the Author's Controversy with Bishop Coppinger, and of his Sufferings for Justice Sake) in which he gives a brief autobiography and a detailed description of his controversy with Bishop William Coppinger.