VERDON, MICHAEL (1838-1918) was born at Liverpool of an Irish family long settled in Leinster and Munster. Educated at a Catholic school in his native town, he proceeded to Castleknock College, Dublin, and then to Rome, where he entered the Irish College. After being ordained deacon, he was sent home to Dublin in ill-health, and was ordained priest there (1861). Appointed a professor at the Holy Cross College, Clonliffe, he became dean and later succeeded Dr Power as president. In 1879 Verdon was made a canon of the metropolitan chapter of Dublin, but he resigned later in the year to become vice-rector of the Irish College in Rome. While at Clonliffe he promoted the building of the church of the Holy Cross and the library, and in Rome he practically rebuilt the Collegio Irlandese, one of the most comfortable and up-to-date institutions in Rome. His family was long closely associated with it, his uncle (Cardinal Cullen) having been rector and his cousin (Bishop Moran, q.v.) vice-rector. Verdon himself was vice-rector (1879-88). In 1888 he was appointed president of Manly College, Sydney. Eight years later he was proceeding to Rome as resident representative of the Australian hierarchy when he received news of his appointment as Bishop of Dunedin. Verdon took up the burden laid down by Moran and vigorously promoted the many works in which his predecessor had been interested. The home at Anderson's Bay, the orphanage at South Dunedin, the boys' and girls' schools in Dunedin, various convents and schools, and Mosgiel College are a monument to his energy. He was chairman of directors of The Tablet, and to him was largely due the success of the appeal made by that paper for relief for sufferers by the fighting in Dublin in 1916. Verdon died on 23 Nov 1918.

N.Z. Tablet, 28 Nov 1918 (p); Otago Daily Times, 24 Nov 1918.

Reference: Volume 2, page 211

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