Samuel Stritch

Samuel Alphonsius Stritch (August 17, 1887 – May 27, 1958) was an American Catholic prelate who served as archbishop of Chicago from 1940 to 1958 and as pro-prefect of the Congregation for Propagation of the Faith from March 1958 until his death two months later. He was elevated to the cardinalate by Pope Pius XII in 1946.

Stritch previously served as archbishop of Milwaukee from 1930 to 1939 and as bishop of Toledo from 1921 to 1930.

Samuel Stritch was born on August 17, 1887, in Nashville, Tennessee, to Garret (Gerard) (1839–1896) and Katherine (née O'Malley) Stritch. The O'Malley family immigrated to the United States from Ireland when Katherine was a young child. They settled in Louisville, Kentucky, where the family opened a boarding house. Garret was born in Ballyheigue, Kerry, in Ireland, but immigrated to Louisville from Dublin in 1879.

Once in Louisville, Garret boarded with the O'Malley family; he married Katherine in 1880. The Stritch family later moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where Garret worked as the manager of the Sycamore Mill near Ashland City. The second youngest of eight children, Samuel had two brothers and five sisters. They all attended the Church of the Assumption in Nashville.

Considered a child prodigy, Samuel Stritch finished primary school at age ten and high school at age 14 in Nashville. Deciding to become a priest, Stritch in 1901 entered St. Gregory's Preparatory Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1903.

Bishop Thomas Byrne of Nashville then sent Stritch to study at the Pontifical Urbaniana Athenaeum De Propaganda Fide in Rome, during which time he resided at the Pontifical North American College. He later earned his doctorates in philosophy and in theology.^{[page needed]} While in Rome, Stritch befriended Monsignor Eugenio Pacelli, who later became Pope Pius XII.

Stritch was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Nashville by Cardinal Pietro Respighi on May 21, 1910, at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. At age 22, Stritch was below the age requirement for ordination, but Pope Pius X granted him a dispensation. He remarked that, "[Stritch] is young in years but old in intelligence. Let him be ordained."

After Stritch returned to the United States, the diocese assigned him in 1911 as pastor of St. Patrick's Church in Memphis. Byrne named him as his private secretary in 1913 and as a diocesan chancellor in 1917. The Vatican appointed Stritch as a domestic prelate in May 1921.^{[page needed]}