James Edward Quigley

Ordination and ministry While in Rome, Quigley was ordained a priest by Cardinal Raffaele Monaco La Valletta for the Diocese of Buffalo on April 13, 1879.

Following his return to New York, the diocese assigned Quigley as pastor of St. Vincent Parish in Attica. He left St. Vincent's in 1884 to become rector of St. Joseph's Cathedral Parish in Buffalo.

Archbishop of Chicago

Quigley was appointed archbishop of Chicago by Leo XIII on January 8, 1903, and was installed on March 10, 1903.

Quigley quickly realized that the rapidly expanding population in the archdiocese demanded more priests. In July 1903 he started planning a minor seminary that would provide high school and some college course for teenagers entering the priesthood.. Cathedral College of the Sacred Heart opened in Chicago in October 1905 with an enrollment of 52 seminarians. After Quigley's death, this minor seminary evolved into the Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary. Quigley also bought property in Chicago for the future establishment of a major seminary for adult seminarians.

In 1905, Quigley asked Reverend John De Schryver, a professor at St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, to organize St. John Berchmans Parish for Belgian Catholic immigrants. He also organized national parishes for Italian and Lithuanian immigrants. The resulting parishes flourished as an "important spiritual, cultural, and educational component of Chicago's life."

Quigley was always interested in Catholic missions, both in the United States and abroad. In 1905 was one of the founders of the Catholic Extension Society, which would support mission churches throughout the country. Quigley hosted the first American Catholic Missionary Conference in Chicago in 1908.

In 1910, Quigley approached Reverend Francis X. McCabe, president of DePaul University, about the lack of higher education opportunities for Catholic women in the archdiocese. DePaul began admitting women the following year.

Quigley had commissioned in 1905 the construction of the Bishops' Mausoleum in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois. It was designed by the architect William J. Brinkmann, who planned several churches in Chicago. Completed in 1912, the mausoleum holds the remains of five bishops and archbishops of Chicago.

Death and legacy In June 1915, in declining health, Quigley traveled to Rochester, New York, to stay with his brother while receiving medical treatment. James Quigley died in Rochester from what was called paralysis on July 10, 1915, at age 60. A 1915 resolution by the Chicago City Council named Quigley as;"...one of those men who work quietly and behind the scenes, and who seek no public credit or applause for the work which they do...he spent himself...in particular in the service of the many and varied works of charity which have been founded..." The Archbishop Quigley Center in Chicago, formerly the Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary, is named in his honor. Bishop Quigley High School in Buffalo was named after him.