1885 – 1937 (March 14)
Michael Augustine Sullivan, son of Daniel Sullivan and Bridget Garvey, was born on August 8, 1885, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. On August 9th, he was baptized in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, a mission of Saint Mary’s Parish. Michael received his early education in Saint Mary’s Parochial School, Lawrence High School, and Villanova Preparatory School, Villanova, Pa. He entered the novitiate at Villanova on July 4, 1907, professed simple vows on July 6, 1908, and made solemn profession on July 6, 1911. On May 30, 1914, he was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Edmund F. Prendergast, in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, Philadelphia, and offered his first solemn High Mass in his home parish of Saint Mary’s, Lawrence.
In 1915 Father Sullivan was assigned briefly to Our Mother of Good Counsel Parish, Bryn Mawr, PA., and then to Saint Mary’s Parish, Lawrence, Massachusetts. In 1925, he was appointed pastor and prior of that latter community. In 1929 he was transferred to Saint Paul Parish, Mechanicville, New York, where he remained until his appointment as prior and rector of Saint Augustine, Philadelphia.
Father Sullivan died of a heart ailment in Misericordia Hospital in Philadelphia, on March 14, 1937, at the age of 51. A Solemn Requiem Mass was offered at Saint Augustine Church on Tuesday, March 16, followed by a second Mass at Saint Mary’s, Lawrence, on Thursday, March 18, followed by burial in Saint Mary’s Cemetery, Lawrence.
