CONNELLY, John, R. C. bishop, born in Drogheda, Ireland, in 1750; died in New York in 1825. He was educated in Belgium, where he became a member of the Dominican order, and afterward went to Rome and was elected prior of St. Clement's and appointed agent for the Irish bishops. During the French occupation of that City he gained much credit for his success in securing the property of the English and Irish religious institutions from confiscation. On the return of Pins VII. to Rome in 1814, Father Connelly waschosen bishop of New York, and consecrated the same year. He visited Ireland with the object of obtaining priests, but secured only one. At this time the diocese of New York embraced the entire state and part of New Jersey, and contained a Catholic population of 17,000. Bishop Connelly found only four priests to receive him on his arrival, and had to perform missionary duties in addition to his episcopal functions. He founded churches in Utica and Rochester, and erected an orphan asylum in New York, which he confided to the care of the Sisters of Charity. His labors during the yellow-fever epidemics of 1822 and 1823 greatly impaired his strength.