On May 12, 1888, John Joseph Lynch, C.M., the first Archbishop of Toronto, Canada, died. He was born at Clones, County Monaghan, Ireland, 6 Feb., 1816. He attended Castleknock College and College of St. Lazare, Paris. He did missionary work in Ireland, throughout the United States, and in Canada. Father Lynch tended to wounded and sick American soldiers of the Mexican War. He also founded The College or Seminary of Our Lady of the Angels which later became Niagara University. Read more about this very interesting Vincentian in these two articles from the Vincentian Heritage Journal: The Charitable Endeavors of Archbishop John Joseph Lynch, C.M., and Becoming a Bishop and Remaining a Vincentian: The Struggles of Archbishop John Joseph Lynch, C.M..

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Also, on this day in 1878, Thaddeus Amat y Brusi, C.M., died. Amat was born in Barcelona, Spain, on December 31, 1810 and he became the first Bishop of Los Angeles, California. He founded some of the first schools in Los Angeles and was involved in founding St. Vincent’s College (now known as Loyola Marymount University). Read more about his life at the Famvin Encyclopedia and on Wikipedia.