Thomas Martin Aloysius Burke

Thomas Burke was born in Swinford, County Mayo, and came to the United States with his father, a physician, in 1850, settling in Utica, New York.[1] He received his early education under the Christian Brothers in Utica, and attended St. Michael's College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[2] In 1856, he entered St. Charles College in Ellicott City, Maryland, where he befriended his classmate James Gibbons.[2] He completed his theological studies at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore.[1]

Burke was ordained to the priesthood on June 30, 1864.[3] He then served as a curate at St. John's Church in Albany until 1865, when he succeeded John J. Conroy as pastor of St. Joseph's Church in the same city.[1] He became vicar general under Bishop Francis McNierney in 1887, and was named a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre in 1890.[2]

On May 15, 1894, Burke was appointed the fourth Bishop of Albany by Pope Leo XIII.[3] He received his episcopal consecration on the following July 1 from Archbishop Michael Corrigan, with Bishops Bernard John McQuaid and Patrick Anthony Ludden serving as co-consecrators, in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.[3] During his administration, he enlarged the Boys' Asylum in Albany, reduced diocesan debt, and renovated the cathedral.[4]

He died in Albany at age 75.[5]

• Works by or about Thomas Martin Aloysius Burke at Internet Archive
• Biographical sketch from Vol. I, pp. 232–238 of Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs, edited by Cuyler Reynolds (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1911).