‘Gentle soul, full of kindly feeling’ brought down by illtimed venture north
The pandemic respecter 1918 of influenza was rank no and on November 22, 1918 it claimed its most notable Dunedin victim — Roman Catholic Bishop of Dunedin Michael Verdon. Mike Houlahan looks back at his career and death.
IRONICALLY, it was a trip away from Dunedin for the good of his health that probably killed Michael Verdon.
The Roman Catholic bishop of Dunedin was a big, strong 79yearold, but late in 1918 his age was starting to catch up with him.
In September he made the fateful decision to visit Rotorua, where warmer temperatures and thermal waters would, hopefully, prove a tonic.
However, Dr Verdon’s timing was appalling.
While the exact date when the pandemic influenza arrived here is not known, the illness — which killed 5% of the world’s population and about 9000 New Zealanders — probably reached the North Island in late September.
Rotorua was then a small town with 2800 people. Twenty died in the pandemic, and another 10 died in the surrounding county.
The Otago Daily Times recorded Dr Verdon was ‘‘improved very considerably’’ by his time in Rotorua.
His journey home saw him first go to Auckland.
When Dr Verdon arrived, the northern city was being overwhelmed by the pandemic — 1128 people died in a matter of weeks.
The city’s transport system was about to grind to a halt, as much from staff absenteeism through illness as from precautions to prevent the spread of the illness.
Some time during the trip south, Dr Verdon developed influenza symptoms.
By the time he reached Wellington, which would lose 757 people to the pandemic, Dr Verdon’s illness had turned into bronchitis.
There, after ‘‘some days of suffering’’, a long and distinguished clerical career came to an end on November 22, 1918.
Dublinborn Michael Verdon was destined for a church career: his uncle was Archbishop of Dublin and his cousin, Cardinal Patrick Moran, became Archbishop of Sydney.
Ordained in 1861, he rose to become president of Dublin’s seminary, before his cousin persuaded him to take charge of St Patrick’s Seminary in Sydney.
In 1895 he accepted an offer to represent Australia at the Vatican, but before he could leave news came he had been appointed bishop of Dunedin.
The Otago Daily Times reported Dr Verdon was markedly different from his predecessor, Bishop Moran: massive rather than slight, publicityshy rather than highprofile — ‘‘outside the circle of his own denomination he can hardly be said to have been widely known in his own diocese even after a residence of more than 20 years in it’’.
While he may have been quiet, Bishop Verdon was an achiever.
Several new churches were built in the region under his stewardship, as were schools and a St Vincent de Paul orphanage.
A project close to Dr Verdon’s heart was establishing Holy Cross College in Mosgiel. At the time it was the southernmost seminary in the world, and he was its first rector.
He was also a director of Catholic newspaper The New Zealand Tablet, and sponsored several convents.
‘‘He was a gentle soul, full of kindly feeling, with a mind well stored with varied knowledge,’’ the Evening Star eulogised.
‘‘He was more and more beloved as the years brought fuller knowledge of him.’’
Initially buried in the Southern Cemetery alongside Bishop Moran, in 1963 Dr Verdon was moved to a chapel built in his memory at Holy Cross.
Dr Verdon was the most prominent Dunedin citizen to die in the pandemic, which claimed the mighty and the meek.
On the day he died, November 22, Dunedin Hospital admitted 41 influenza patients and dealt with seven influenza deaths.
Overall, the pandemic claimed 273 lives in Dunedin, 223 in the rest of Otago and 500 in Southland.