John Stephen Michaud

Who was John Stephen Michaud?

John Stephen Michaud was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Burlington from 1899 until his death in 1908.

Michaud was born in Burlington, Vermont, to Stephen and Catherine Michaud. He attended the school run by Rev. Jeremiah O'Callaghan, the first resident priest of Vermont, and served as an altar boy to the new bishop, Louis De Goesbriand. Following his father's death in 1847, he worked in various Burlington lumber industries and later graduated from Bryant and Stratton Commercial College. In September 1865 he entered the Sulpician-run Montreal College in Quebec, Canada, followed by studies at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts and at St. Joseph's Seminary in Troy, New York.

Michaud was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Edgar Wadhams on June 7, 1873. He then served in Newport, Albany, Barton and Lowell, where he established the first Catholic churches, including st. Mary Star of the Sea in Newport. After being briefly felled by smallpox and given further pastoral responsibilities, Michaud was recalled to Burlington in 1879 to handle the construction of St. Joseph's Orphanage, completed in 1883.