Every parish usually has a pastor who stands out as an exceptional person and as a beacon for the Lord's light. For St. Dennis to have experienced many such individuals truly shows the guidance of God's invisible hand on behalf of the faithful. For St. Dennis to have had Father Michael Hurley twice was quite a godsend.

Father Hurley first entered his name in the St. Dennis register on the 15th of March 1857. He left to assist Reverend Dunne at 'old' St. Patrick's Church in Chicago in 1859 when Father Herbert arrived at Lockport. Returning in April of 1860, Father Hurley stayed at St. Dennis until February of 1864.

His ministry at St. Dennis included extensive works at the missions along the Illinois and Michigan Canal. The first frame church for the mission at Lemont was fabricated under the guidance of Father Hurley and dedicated to St. Patrick. The Church was erected adjacent to the original site. Father Hurley pressed the good People of the Corkstown parish for the funding and they responded in kind. The formal dedication took place on the 15th of August 1862.

With the mission at the Sag (St. James) under his guidance Father Hurley commenced to record baptisms there in a separate register. The first entry was for Johanna Murphy on the 22nd of March 1857. He dubbed the mission as "the Church at the Saginaw".

Brought forth into our world at Tipperary, Ireland, in the year 1826, Michael Hurley heard the calling to the religious life early on. He received his education in Dublin with a concentration in theology. Immigrating to America in 1849 Michael entered the University of St. Mary of the Lake, Chicago, where he achieved an A.B. degree. He graduated on the 15th of July 1852, among many distinguished classmates, one being John McMullen, first bishop of Davenport. He was well versed in French and German, which made him very capable in communicating in diverse parishes.

Shortly after leaving the seminary, Father Hurley went to the city that would ultimately become his final stop - Peoria. In August and September of 1853, St. Mary's Church in Peoria would be homebase for Father Hurley for the first of many times. Here he was assistant to Pastor Thomas Kennedy. During 1854 Father Hurley headed the Immaculate Conception parish in Springfield and also conducted services in Bloomington, Illinois.

Prior to his return to St.Dennis in 1860 he spent a short month at St. Mary's in Peoria from February 8, 1859, until March 3, 1859. Sometime along the ecclesiastical path Father Hurley was pastor at St. Michael's in Maytown (Palestine Grove), Lee County. He is also listed as a pastor at St. Michael's in Galena during 1861. This was probably during his absence from St. Dennis which was recorded between July 28, 1861 and November 16, 1861.

Father Michael Hurley reappeared in Peoria in 1864 serving as pastor to all English speaking Catholics. On the first of March 1868, Father Hurley resigned from St. Mary's to assume the pastorate at St. Patrick's Church in Peoria.

To Father Hurley simplicity was a virtue to live by. He lived a life of ascetic austerity with a habitat and diet that echoed this style. One of his maxims to young priests was that they would know the true ways of the priesthood when they experienced "the exhilarating influence of a Mass said in a Church at the point of zero [degrees]."

His rigorous lifestyle was marked by his devotion to walking anywhere and everywhere: "An evening stroll with the old gentleman sometimes meant a ten-mile steady swift tramp uphill and down till youthful vigor was exhausted and the pleasure trip had become a painful task, yet the dear old man of sixty, thin to emaciation, pale as a corpse, but erect and supple, would have enjoyed another mile or two". [The New World; April 14, 1900] His devotion to walking left him the reputation as never having entered a carriage or streetcar.

With the knowledge of Father Hurley's strong constitution and deep knowledge of Peoria and its surrounding environs the Holy See wished to reward the good Father. The immensity of the territory covered by the Diocese of Chicago was more than Bishop Foley as administrator and co-adjutator could properly attend to. By 1872 he requested to Rome that dividing the See be considered. After much thought Archbishop Peter Kenrick of St. Louis conferred with his bishops and sent a letter to the Prefect of the Propaganda, Alessandro Cardinal Franchi. The letter among other things requested the establishment of a See at Peoria, Illinois. "The Terna, or list of three nominees, for the Diocese of Peoria included Michael Hurley in the first place or Dignissimus, Edward M. Hennessy of the Congregation of St. Vincent DePaul in the second place or Dignior, and John Ireland of the Diocese of St. Paul (and its future archbishop) in the third place or Dignus" [David Francis Sweeney, O.F.M., The Life of John Lancaster Spalding. New York. 1965. P.101]

In 1875 Father Hurley was elected to be the first bishop of Peoria. Obviously flattered by this development, nevertheless, Father Hurley turned down the Bulls (the documents announcing the appointment as bishop) outright. The briefs appointing Hurley to Peoria were accompanied by a letter in which the bishop-elect was exhorted in the name of the Holy Father to accept the honor conferred on him. On April 21, 1875, Hurley replied that he was obligated by conscience to decline the episcopacy since he was unable to perform the duties involved, because, as he said, "he did not know an iota of canon law, he was little versed in theology, and he felt himself unable to resolve the difficulties with which priests of the diocese might present to him and thus become the object of their contempt rather than of their respect."[The Life of John Lancaster Spalding. P.103] While faithful as the morning sunrise, Father Hurley knew that the change in lifestyle that the bishop position demanded would shorten his life.

As legend has it, the returned Bulls found their way to the bottom of the sea when the ship carrying them sank near the French shoreline. For awhile confusion reigned. Whether this account is factual or not on May 16,1875, the pope became aware of Father Hurley's rejection but refused to accept it believing it was "prompted by sentiments of humility." Inevitably, Pope Pius IX became fully aware of the predicament, accepted Father Hurley's position and appointed Reverend John Lancaster Spalding as bishop.

For the last nine months of his life Father Hurley experienced a debilitating stroke-induced paralysis. After 39 years of priestly devotion Father Michael Hurley's amazing life came to an end. As the vicar general of the Diocese of Peoria he was respected for his pleasantry, his good judgement and Spartan will power.

Eighty priests from Peoria, Chicago and all across Illinois attended the solemn High Mass conducted by the Right Reverend Ryan, Bishop of Alton. Representing St. Dennis was the Reverend James J. McGovern, D.D. The eulogy was given by the Bishop of Peoria, John Lancaster Spalding, who owed his position to the fact that the man he was paying tribute to had turned it down. His body was laid to rest in St. Mary's Cemetery, Peoria.

A man of pleasant words and a "liberal dispenser of charity", Father Michael Hurley should be remembered as leading a model life that touched many in his time and for times yet to come.