DOWD, Patrick, Canadian clergyman, born in the County Louth, Ireland, in 1813. He was educated at Newry and at Paris, where he went in 1832, and pursued his theological studies in the Irish College there. In 1837 he was ordained priest by Archbishop Quelen, of Paris, and soon afterward returned to Ireland, where he resided until 1847, being for a part of that time president of the diocesan seminary of Armagh. In 1848 he removed to Canada, and officiated as assistant to Father Connolly, the pastor of St. Patrick's Church at Montreal, until 1856, when he was appointed pastor of the congregation. Soon after Father Dowd's arrival in Montreal he saw the necessity for an asylum for Irish orphans in that City, and in 1849 he established one. He was also mainly instrumental in securing the erection of the present St. Patrick's orphan asylum in Montreal, which was opened in November 1851, and established in 1856 the night refuge for the destitute and St. Bridget's home for the old and infirm, and in 1866'7 he secured the erection of a commodious building on Lagauchetiere Street as a refuge for the poor. In 1877 he organized the great Irish Roman Catholic pilgrimage to Lourdes and Rome. He has been offered, on several occasions, the highest dignities of the Church, and refused the offer of the bishoptic of Toronto, or Kingston. He has been more thoroughly identified with the Irish Catholics of Montreal than any other clergyman.