to them. (At that time, the Bishop of Baltimore had jurisdiction over the entire Catholic Church in the United States.) In 1803, Egan became one of the pastors of St. Mary's Church at Philadelphia. The move coincided with a yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia. Though less virulent than Philadelphia's famous 1793 outbreak of the disease, there were nonetheless many deaths, and Egan presided over many funerals that year—St. Mary's had 77 interments between June and November 1803. In 1804, Egan received permission to establish a province of Franciscans in the United States for the first time, independent of the Irish Franciscans who were then supervising the American mission. Two years later, a parishioner willed Egan some land along the Yellow Creek in Indiana County, for the establishment of a Franciscan church. Due to the order's vows of poverty, Egan asked Carroll to hold the land in his name. Egan's dream was never realized, as he was unable to attract Franciscans from Europe to establish the planned church. Egan and the trustees of St. Mary's established a singing school in 1804, with the goal of improving the quality of the choir there. The following year was consumed by another yellow fever outbreak, and Egan joined John Rossiter, the pastor of another of Philadelphia's four Catholic churches, St. Joseph's, in ministering to the sick. In 1806, they worked with the parishioners of a third church, Holy Trinity, to found an orphanage, as the problem of orphaned children had been made worse by the yellow fever deaths. Bishop of Philadelphia Ordination The Catholic population in the United States was growing, and Bishop John Carroll had for some time wished for his vast diocese to be divided into more manageable territories. On April 8, 1808, Pope Pius VII granted Carroll's request, erecting four new sees in the United States and elevating Baltimore to an archdiocese. Among the new sees was the Diocese of Philadelphia, which included the states of Pennsylvania and Delaware as well as the western and southern parts of New Jersey. Even before the diocese was created, Carroll had determined to recommend Egan for the post, writing to Rome that Egan "was truly pious, learned, religious, remarkable for his great humility, but deficient, perhaps, in firmness and without great experience in the direction of affairs". As a result of disruptions caused by the Napoleonic Wars, the papal bull nominating Egan did not