Michael Domenec
| Rt. Rev. Michael Domenec, C.M. | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of Allegheny | |
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| Church | Roman Catholic Church |
| See | Allegheny |
| In office | March 19, 1876– July 29, 1877 |
| Predecessor | none |
| Successor | none |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | June 30, 1839 |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
December 27, 1816 Reus, Spain |
| Died | January 7, 1878 (aged 61) Tarragona, Spain |
| Previous post |
Bishop of Pittsburgh (Dec. 9, 1860 – Jan. 11, 1876) |
Michael Domenec, DD, C.M. (Catalan: Miquel Domènech i Veciana; 1816–1878) was the second Roman Catholic bishop of the diocese of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the only bishop of the short-lived Diocese of Allegheny.
Miquel Joan Josep Domènech i Veciana was born on December 27, 1816 and baptized the same day at the parish church of in Reus, near Tarragona, Spain. His parents, Josep Domènech and Tecla Viciana, were of a wealthy family of high social standing. (American sources spell the family name "Domenec.") At the age of fifteen, his family left Spain for political reasons. They moved to France, where Domenec studied at the College of Montolieu in Aude, where he joined the Congregation of the Mission, also known as the Vincentians or Lazarites. He lived at their motherhouse in Paris until in 1838. It was at that time that he met Father John Timon, the visitor general of the Vincentians in the United States. At Timon's invitation, Domenec joined the American mission, arriving at St. Mary's of the Barrens, a seminary in Missouri. By 1838, young Domenec had become fluent in English, and acquired some reputation as an orator. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 30, 1839.
In 1845, Domenec was sent to Philadelphia to take charge of St. Vincent's Seminary. He was first made pastor of St. Stephen's church in Nicetown and later of St. Vincent de Paul in Germantown. When Pittsburgh's Bishop O'Connor resigned his episcopal office in 1860, Father Domenec was recommended as his successor. When he was consecrated in Saint Paul's Cathedral on December 9, 1860, the new Bishop Domenec found the diocese in good order: "well-supplied with priests and churches, and finely equipped institutions". However, even though Domenec was opposed to debt, he was unable to deal successfully with financial involvements—the panic of 1873 was a fiscal disaster for the Pittsburgh diocese. In the period after the American Civil War, when debts should have been paid off instead of more incurred, improvements upon the cathedral and the building of churches, convents, and schools had rolled up heavy obligations which the diocese could no longer meet.
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