Patrick Augustine Feehan (August 28, 1829 – July 12, 1902), was an Irish-born American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the first archbishop of the newly elevated Archdiocese of Chicago in Illinois between 1880 and his death in 1902. He previously served as bishop of the Diocese of Nashville in Tennessee from 1865 to 1880. Biography Early life Patrick Feehan was born in Killenaule, County Tipperary, in Ireland, to Patrick and Judith Cooney Feehan. His father was a gentleman farmer. At age ten, Feehan was sent to live with his paternal grandfather to attend school in Fethard. He returned to Killenaullee two years later when a school opened there, and at age 14 started studying Gaelic. In 1845, Feehan entered Castleknock College in Dublin as an ecclesiastic student, where he befriended the future statesman Charles Russell. In January 1847, Feehan started his studies at St Patrick's College in Maynooth, Ireland, where he spent five years. Archbishop Peter Kenrick of the Archdiocese of St. Louis in the United States had opened a seminary in Carondelet, Missouri. Himself a graduate of Maynooth, Kenrick requested that the college transfer Feehan, on track to become a professor, to his archdiocese. In 1852, Feehan left for the United States; his family had emigrated there two years earlier. Priesthood Feehan was ordained for the Archdiocese of St. Louis by Archbishop Kendrick on November 1, 1852, and assigned to teach at the diocesan seminary. In July 1853 he was assigned to St. John's Parish in St. Louis, where during a cholera epidemic he tended the sick and blessed the dead. The following year, he became president of the Theological Seminary in Carondelet. In 1858, Feehan was appointed pastor of St. Michael's Parish in St. Louis. Then in 1859, he became pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish, where he established the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul to aid the poor. During the American Civil War, the Sisters of Charity were put in charge of a hospital in St. Louis, where Feehan spent long hours comforting the sick and wounded. After the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee in April 1862, boatloads of wounded soldiers docked in St. Louis. For three days in succession, Feehan moved along the wharf and the stretchers laid in rows on the street, administering last rites to those who would not make it to hospital. Bishop of Nashville Feehan was appointed bishop