Rev. Michael Thomas Madden, pastor of St. Francis Church (Roman Catholic) of Phelps, New York, is a native of Rochester, New York, in which city his grandfather settled in 1818 upon his emigration to this country from Ireland, his birthplace.
Father Madden attended the public schools of Rochester, where he obtained a rudimentary education, which was supplemented by a course of study at St. Basil’s College, Toronto, Canada, Niagara University, Niagara Falls, New York, Seton Hall College, South Orange, New Jersey, receiving from the latter named institution the degree of Bachelor of Arts. and two years later that of Master of Arts. He then spent four years at the Provincial Seminary at Troy, New York, where he was ordained a priest of the Catholic church in 1874. His first charge was St. Mary’s Church at Rochester, New York, where he labored faithfully for four years, at the expiration of which time he was called to the pastorate of St. James’ Church at Trumansburg, New York, where he served efficiently and successfully for twenty-eight years, and in July, 1909, was transferred to the pastorate of St. Francis Church at Phelps, New York, his present incumbency. The faithful and loving care he bestowed upon his parishioners won for him their confidence and admiration, and his work was greatly blessed in increased membership and in its power for good in the community. His life is one of activity and usefulness, his work widely extended, and of the kind that will be felt and recognized after he shall have been called away. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus.