Subseries 2 - Co-Founder: Rev. Arthur Coughlan, CSsR

Arthur T. Coughlan was born in New York City on December 23, 1868 to Mary Roche and Arthur Coughlan. In 1880 under the guidance of Fr. Philip Colonel, CSsR, he went to St. Clement's preparatory college in Ilchester, MD. Later he studied at St. Mary's College, North East, PA and made his novitiate in Annapolis, MD, where he made first vows on August 27, 1887. He was ordained at Ilchester, MD by Cardinal Gibbons on December 7, 1892.

He first taught English at St. Mary's North East (1893-1898; 1907-1912) before being appointed to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in New York (1989-1905), the mission band at Saratoga, NY, (1905-1907) and St. Alphonsus in Baltimore (1912-1913). Fr. Coughlan came to Toronto in 1913 at the request of Archbishop Neil McNeil to work with the Italian immigrants in Toronto. In 1915 he was appointed rector of St. Patrick's Church and secretary consultor to the Vice Provincial Rev. Patrick Mulhall. He became provincial consultor in 1918 when Toronto became an independent Redemptorist province and became Provincial in 1920. During his time he accepted Vancouver and Edmonton as new Redemptorist foundations and established a temporary seminary at St. Ann's, Montreal.

Fr. Coughlan provided practical advice and spiritual direction to Catherine Donnelly after her two unsuccessful attempts to join the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto. Alongside Archbishop McNeil, the trio worked together on the details of creating a new community, the Institute of the Sisters of Service. At this time, Fr. Coughlan was the Provincial Superior of the Redemptorists and was busy with administering the growing Toronto Province, and so, Fr. George Daly was brought onboard. Fr. Coughlan also served as the spiritual director of the SOS Institute for its first five years.

In 1927, he was appointed pastor of St. Patrick's in Quebec City, and in 1930, when the seminary settled in the old Woodstock Baptist college, he became the first Rector while teaching moral and pastoral theology. In 1935, he returned to St. Mary's North East in the States, followed by St. Cecilia's, and St. Alphonsus in New York where he died on May 27, 1943. He is buried at Esopus, NY.