Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/O'Brien, Cornelius
O'BRIEN, CORNELIUS (1843–1906), catholic archbishop of Halifax, Nova Scotia, born near New Glasgow, Prince Edward Island, on 4 May 1843, was seventh of the nine children of Terence O'Brien of Munster by his wife Catherine O'Driscoll of Cork. After school training he obtained, as a boy, mercantile employment, but at nineteen entered St. Dunstan's College, Charlottetown, to study for the priesthood. In 1864 he passed to the College of the Propaganda in Rome, and concluded his seven years' course in 1871 by winning the prize for general excellence in the whole college. While he was in Rome Garibaldi attacked the city, the Vatican Council was held, and the temporal power fell. O'Brien, who had literary ambition and a taste for verse, founded on these stirring events an historical novel which he published later under the title 'After Weary Years' (Baltimore, 1886). On his return to Canada he was appointed a professor in St. Dunstan's College and rector of the cathedral of Charlottetown, but failing health led to his transfer in 1874 to the country parish of Indian River. There he devoted his leisure to writing, issuing 'The Philosophy of the Bible vindicated' (Charlottetown, 1876); 'Early Stages of Christianity in England' (Charlottetown, 1880); and 'Mater Admirablia,' in praise of the Virgin (Montreal, 1882). He twice revisited Rome, and in 1882 O'Brien, on the death of Archbishop Hannan, was appointed his successor in the see of Halifax. O'Brien administered the diocese with great energy, building churches and schools, founding religious and benevolent institutions, and taking an active part in public affairs whenever he considered the good of the community demanded it. His hope of seeing a catholic university in Halifax was not realised, but he established a French College for the Acadians at Church Point, and founded a collegiate school, St. Mary's College, in Halifax, which was to be the germ of the future university. He died suddenly in Halifax on 9 March 1906, and was buried in the cemetery of the Holy Cross. A painted portrait is in the archi-episcopal palace in Halifax. O'Brien, who was elected president of the Royal Society of Canada in 1896, was a representative Irish-Canadian prelate, combining force of character with depth of sentiment and winning the esteem of his protestant fellow-subjects while insisting on what he believed to be the rights of the Roman catholic minority. Advocating home rule for Ireland, he was at the same time a staunch imperialist and a strong Canadian. In addition to the books named he wrote 'St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr' (Halifax, 1887), his patroness; 'Aminta,' a modern life drama (1890), a metrical novel after the model of 'Aurora Leigh'; and 'Memoirs of Edmund Burke (1753-1820), the first Bishop of Halifax' (1894). The last work called forth a reply, 'Mémoires sur les Missions de la Nouvelle Ecosse' (Quebec, 1895).
[Archbishop O'Brien: Man and Churchman, by Katharine Hughes (his niece), Ottawa, 1906 (with portraits); Morgan, Canadian Men and Women of the Time, 1898; Toronto Globe, 10 March 1906.]