The Albury Banner and Wodonga Express, 19 March 1864, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article264153575:

We are informed that his Grace has decided to make the following changes amongst the clergy, and that instructions have been issued to each to proceed with as little delay as possible to their respective destinations:—The Rev. Dean Sumner to Sacred Heart, in place of Father Sheridan, who goes to Lyndhurst, to take charge of that establishment. Father Corish takes charge of Bathurst, and Father Timothy McCarthy supplies Father Corish's place in St. Benedict's. Father Donovan, of St. Benedict's, goes to Orange, and Father Athy returns to Sydney. Father Duigan, of St. Patrick's, goes as assistant priest to Father O'Brien, of Braidwood. Father Conway, of Sacred Heart goes to St. Patrick's; Father O'Neill, from Tumut to Carcoar, in place of Father McCarthy. We believe there will be other changes, but the above are the only ones yet decided upon.—Freeman's Journal.

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Death of Father Corish, Freeman’s Journal, Sydney, 2 July 1864, p 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128800572:

It is with feeling of the greatest regret and sorrow we lay before our readers the following telegram which we received from our Bathurst correspondent on Thursday evening:—
Bathurst, June 30th, 1864.
Father Corish died at two o'clock this afternoon. He was sick just one month and the breaking up of his constitution proceeded from general debility. He was in full possession of his faculties up to the last moment. The Very Rev. S. A. Sheehy, V.G., and Fathers Coyne, O'Farrell, O'Donovan, and Quirk were present when he expired. The grief at the Rev. Father's decease is general throughout the whole population in the district without any distinction of religious belief. The funeral obsequies are fixed to take place on Saturday.

From the lateness of the hour at which the foregoing telegram reached our office it was impossible to collect sufficient particulars of the career of the reverend gentleman to lay them before our readers with any satisfaction, and as the life of a priest who commanded such universal respect as Father Corish, demands something more than a mere passing notice, we propose on Wednesday next to give as complete a biography as circumstances will admit of, and to present a portrait equal in fidelity to that which illustrated our sketch of the Very Rev. Archpriest Therry. A solemn dirge for the repose of the soul of Father Corish, will be sung this morning at St. Benedict's at ten o'clock, followed by High Mass for the dead at which his Grace the Archbishop will be present and assist.

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The Late Reverend M.A. Corish, Freeman’s Journal, Sydney, 6 July 1864, p 5, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128802615:

Again have we the sorrowful duty of announcing to the public the decease of a zealous and earnest servant and minister of Christ— the Rev. Father Corish. The ranks of the Church in New South Wales have been much thinned within the last few months. Very rapidly and suddenly have many of its most zealous soldiers been falling around us, some in the ripeness of old age, others in the prime and vigour of manhood, to whom in all human probability a long and a useful life was destined. Of these was Father Corish. He was yet young, and we all hoped that he would have been long spared to labour as he had hitherto done in the vine yard of the Lord, with that earnest and single purpose he always displayed, and that distinguished success that attended his efforts during his short but well-filled career. In his wisdom God has judged it right to take him to himself and we must submit with deep, but alas, unavailing sorrow.

Annuntiavi justitiam tuam in ecclesia magna; ecce labia mea non prohibebo; Domine, tu scisti. With truth could Father Corish have uttered these words of the Psalmist. We that have been spectators of his arduous efforts to announce the justice and the mercy of God, to point out the true path to the wanderer, and to reclaim the erring sinner, can well appreciate the zeal that filled his heart and that made him an early and a late labourer in the work of God. As long as there was anything left undone, which he thought would extend the love of God and the interests of our holy Mother, the Church, this earnest priest was not satisfied, his heart was not content, and he was indefatigable in his efforts until the void was filled, until whatever was wanting was supplied. He was in truth a fidelis servus and with humble trust in the mercy of God we earnestly hope that his soul was gladdened with those words that promise eternal happiness, those words that the Redeemer reserves for his faithful servants, who have well done the work he entrusted to them to perform. And as far as human judgment can pronounce on the deeds done in this world, which are to be weighed in their just weight by the inscrutable justice of Providence only, we can say that the work God called upon him to perform was zealously performed, that the charge he gave him over the souls of many was diligently fulfilled. Si quaeris monumentum circumspice. From his lips now cold and voiceless, we might fancy these words coming with the humble satisfaction of the Christian and the pious confidence in the promises and goodness of our Redeemer and the consolations of the church, which fills every Catholic soul.

If his words wanted that eloquence that fills the mind and enthralls the soul, that strikes home repentance to the heart of the sinner, his actions preach to us a sermon more enduring and more affecting. By his life he set us an example that we ought to imitate — he traced out the path which we ought to follow — that path that however thorny and difficult, however long and tedious and trying to human nature, alone conducts to a reward more brilliant, a compensation more infinitely immense than the mind of man can imagine. From out the coffin comes that voice, it comes from beyond the grave to tell us that in order to gain a place in the mansion of the blessed we must be servers of God, followers of his church, that however often the frailty of the flesh causes us to faint and to fall, to grow weary and to stumble we are to rise again, and to persevere until the end be attained — that nothing must deter us from the service of God until it please Him to call us from this world. The days of man are short, but even in the brief space that is allotted to us on this earth, if we but served God faithfully and truly we might earn for ourselves, in His infinite mercy, the never-ending happiness and repose of the just, made perfect. To do this we have but to model our lives on that of this good priest, who, having consummated his course upon earth, has gone to meet his God and his judge.

Father Corish was a most earnest priest, a most persevering pastor. During the eighteen years that he passed in this colony and especially during the time that he laboured in Sydney, he by the most persevering efforts raised several monuments of his love of God and anxious desire to serve the church and advance the interest of religion. When he first came to St. Benedict's district as many of our readers are aware, the only church in that large and populous quarter was but a small structure miserably insufficient for the wants of the congregation. This affected Father Corish deeply and he resolved on remedying the want. Long he laboured, earnestly he strove to attain this end. That he has done so the beautiful church of St. Benedict's is a proud testimony. We who see but the success can scarcely judge of the immensity of the labour that was necessary to attain it. We cannot perhaps appreciate it at its full value still a little reflection will tell us that no common labour could have raised such a structure. But it is not alone St. Benedict's that remains as a proof of his zeal—on the hill of Mount Carmel, conspicuous from afar, stands a goodly edifice dedicated to the worship of Almighty God, the work also of the good priest who has been called away. Nor did his labours cease here, he was ever engaged in similar good works, never content while any portion of his district was unprovided with a house wherein the people could hear the consoling truths of religion and assist at the holy sacrifice of the mass, the redeeming sacrifice for the sins of mankind. And always and ever working to attain this end, Father Corish did not cease his efforts until even the outlaying district of Botany was possessed of a church. None in the bright history of the church, which contains so many brilliant examples of self-devotion to the cause of God and of truth, have been more self-sacrificing, more forgetful of worldly interest, more ardent in the work of God than this good priest whose death has come upon us so unexpectedly.

Being thoroughly convinced of the benefits that those excellent associations—the Catholic Young Men's Societies, confer upon the members wherever they are established, Father Corish established and laboured earnestly and successfully to propagate a society at St. Benedict's. That society is now one of the largest in Sydney, and its prosperity is gratefully acknowledged to be due to its pious founder. It is not here the place, nor is it now the occasion, to dilate upon the good which that society has done to the parish, but in even a short sketch of Father Corish's career, it is due to his memory to attribute to him the good results of which he was the primary cause. The societies he established—the churches he built will, under Providence, be the means of extending religion and its holy influence long after the present generation will have mouldered into dust and nothingness. They will bind our children, and our children's children together in the bond of religion, of piety, of the grace of God. And this will be due to the exertions, the perseverance, and the zeal of Father Corish.

An active member of several committees, of the Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum, of the Sydney Infirmary, of the Benevolent Asylum &c., he was the cause of much good being done. In the latter establishment especially he effected several much needed reforms, corrected many abuses that had crept into it; his heart was a kind one and the misery of the poor afflicted him much. He could not bear to see them subjected to any discomfort or to any privations which could be avoided. The house of the Good Shepherd, that institution that has been the means of reclaiming so many erring souls, so many poor unfortunates who strayed away from the happy paths of virtue and piety, was a principal object of his anxious care; we can all remember how active were his exertions in getting up Bazaars and every other means by which he thought anything could be gained to promote the interests of this Institution. He established at St. Benedict's in connection with the society a Penny Bank which is still flourishing, still productive of much good. In many other ways did he show his zeal, indeed, it would be difficult to detail the numerous works of goodness that he performed since he was first established in the parish of St. Benedict's. The societies and confraternities which he established remain a lasting evidence of his life of continuous, devoted exertions of this city have lost an earnest friend in Father Corish.

The work of the just does not die with him, it remains long after his body has mouldered into dust; when his name may be forgotten the seeds which he planted become mighty trees, bearing vivifying fruit, affording sweet nourishment to souls hungry for the solace of truth. Days and years pass away, flying swiftly into the dim and shadowy past, generations of men pass away, but the good work once begun still continues, like the ripple of the water, extending its circle as it becomes farther and farther removed from the centre—from the cause that gave it birth. So it will be, we earnestly hope with the labour of love, in which Father Corish was so unceasingly engaged.

Michael Andrew Corish was born in Wexford, Ireland, in the year 1818, his family was respectable, and in comfortable circumstances. At a very early age he manifested a strong desire to consecrate his life to the service of God, in the priesthood, and in accordance with his wishes he was sent to the diocesan seminary at Wexford, where his ardour for study and his fervent piety merited for him the approbation and friendship of the Very Rev. President, Dr. Sinnott. Having honourably passed through the curriculum of the seminary he was sent to St. Kieran's ecclesiastical college, in Kilkenny, there to pursue his theological studies and to complete his education. He was ordained here in 1845, for his own mission, by the Right Rev. Bishop Kensella. But the sacrifice of his life to the Almighty did not yet appear to him complete. He resolved to give up his country and his friends and to give his exertions to the Church in a foreign mission. Scarcely then had he been ordained when he expressed to his Bishop the desire to leave for this colony. With some difficulty his request was granted ; and accordingly he bade adieu to home and arrived in Sydney, accompanied by the Rev. Father McGinty, who is now in Queensland, and by Father Coyle, on the 31st March, 1847. After his arrival here he joined the order of St. Benedict, and served his noviciate at St. Mary's, beginning it on the 24th May, the same year of his arrival. After having completed his noviciate, and made his profession on the 11th July, 1848, he gave a series of missions at Balmain, Brisbane Water, and other districts in the colony. When he had completed these with that fervour, piety and patient perseverance, distinguishing traits in his character, he was sent to Wollongong where, however, he remained but a few weeks. From Wollongong he came to St. Benedict's and here was his life spent in doing good until a few months ago he went by desire of his Grace the Archbishop, to fill the place left vacant by the death of the late, lamented, Dean Grant. As he had endeared himself to his parishioners of St. Benedict, so even in the few weeks that he passed in Bathurst, before he was struck down by the ruthless hand of death, he gained the affection and esteem of all the people in the district, which was strongly shewn by the very general and sincere grief that came over all classes when his death was made known. As was stated in our last he was but a month ill and remaining sensible to the last dread moment, which for him had few terrors, he was constantly engaged in the most lively devotion, and in preparation for the passage which leads from death to life, from the gloom and misery of this earth to the light and shining joy of Heaven. Surrounded by his fellow labourers in the church of God, having received the last sacraments, all the consolations which the church reserves for her children at the moment of death, Father Corish calmly breathed his last. May he rest in peace.

It is due to his memory, as showing the love he still retained for the land that bore him, to state here that one of his last public acts before he fell ill was to preside at a meeting held in Bathurst to inaugurate a branch of the Irish National League. We can have little doubt of its success when it was stamped with his approval and sanction, although had he lived, he would doubtless have pushed it on with the same vigour he exercised in extending the Young Men's Society. It is however something to remember with gratitude by those who are engaged in attempting to aid their country, that Father Corish inaugurated a branch of the League in this flourishing inland district.

Funeral Ceremonies in Sydney.
At ten o'clock on Saturday morning a solemn dirge and Requiem Mass were celebrated in St. Benedict's church for the repose of the soul of Father Corish. His Grace the Archbishop was present in cappa attended by Father McCarthy as assistant priest. The Requiem was sung by the Very Rev. Dean O'Connell, deacon Father Athy and sub-deacon the Rev. Austin Byrne and Father John Dwyer master of ceremonies. There were also present Rev. Dr. Powell, Fathers Roach, Forde, Quinlivan, Kenyon, Conway, and Garvey. During the whole of the previous night the dead bell had been tolled by a youth of fifteen named Gold, desirous of thus showing his respect for the memory of Father Corish. On Sunday night a solemn dirge was chanted at St. Mary's and on Monday morning at nine o'clock a Requiem Mass was sung the celebrant being the Very Rev. Dean O'Connell assisted by Father Athy as deacon and the Rev. P. Fitzpatrick as sub-deacon. His Grace the Archbishop was present in cappa attended by Father Quinlivan as assistant priest and the Rev. Dr. Powell, Fathers Curley, T. McCarthy, Dwyer and Crone also took part in the service.

The Funeral and Sermon.
(From our Bathurst Correspondent.)
It was a melancholy duty of mine to have to telegraph on Thursday last the demise of the Rev. M. A. Corish, O.S.B. He had been only a short time amongst us and even during that time he endeared himself in an eminent degree to every one of his congregation, and to the members of other denominations also. When the shepherd is struck down the flock must needs be in tribulation. Following so quickly on that of another eminently beloved pastor, his death has caused a sensation and grief which it is not possible for me to describe. He said mass for the last time on this day month when he closed his ecclesiastical career. His sight which had began to fail became so bad at the end of the celebration of the mass, that he was obliged to substitute the gospel of St. John for the proper one of the day. He was advised by his medical attendant not to officiate on that occasion, but as it was the morning on which the retreat that he had conducted was to be brought to a close he elected to consummate a holy career by breaking the Bread of Life to a large number of individuals who had listened to his entreaties and had prepared themselves for the reception of the Most Holy Sacrament. During the week of the retreat, he had been indefatigable in his endeavours to induce all to avail themselves of the opportunity to reconcile themselves with God, and numbers who were well known to have neglected their Easter duty for years, did avail themselves of the opportunity and become reconciled with their Maker through the instrumentality of the good man whose early death we deplore.

The Vicar General, and Fathers Hoyne, O'Farrell, O'Donovan, and Quirk, were with him in his last moments. He had full possession of his reason, and was conversing with them a few minutes before he expired. He felt no pain but breathed his last with a gentle sigh, as if he were going off into a temporary sleep, and not that long one that knows no breaking.

It was announced on Friday that his former parishioners of St. Benedict's were anxious to have the body conveyed to Sydney, but it was found to be impossible, although it would have been very desirable, for the fruits of his holy life are to be seen there where he sojourned for upwards of 13 years. On Saturday solemn requiem dirge and High Mass took place, when the Church was crowded to excess. The Vicar-General was celebrant, Father O'Donovan, deacon, Father Phelan, sub-deacon, Father Hoyne, Master of Ceremonies, and Fathers O'Farrell, Quirk and McGuinn, Cantors. After the proper rubrical ceremonies for the occasion, the coffin was lifted from the catafalque and borne to the hearse. The procession in the following order then moved down William-street, round by Howick- street and up George-street, past the presbytery to the church.
Members of the Young Men's Society.
Clergymen.
Hearse.
Confraternity.
Children of the Schools.
The People.

Arrived at St. Michael and St. John's Church the coffin was borne to the grave where the Vicar-General assisted by the other clergymen performed the necessary ceremonies. He was then lowered down and laid to rest by the side of another good and faithful servant of Christ, Dean Grant. May both of them rest in peace. At eleven o'clock mass one of the most feeling addresses I ever listened to was delivered by Father Austin Sheehy, V. G., on the melancholy death of his old friend. He adverted to the many losses lately felt in the Catholic Church and dwelt on the inscrutable ways of Providence in withdrawing good priests at a time when the growing requirements of the mission demanded an increase of labourers. But four months had elapsed since their good and zealous pastor Dean Grant had passed to his reward and the venerated Archbishop had selected from amongst his priests as one most adapted to consummate the good begun by the former Father Corish, who, notwithstanding the fact that he was almost idolised in St. Benedict's and that the love was reciprocal, at once with an obedience quite characteristic gave up all and devoted the remainder of his life to the Bathurst mission. He reviewed his career from his ordination and arrival in the colony up to the time of his coming here and enumerated some of his works such for instance as the completely finishing and freeing from debt St. Benedict's Church the only one in this part of the world solemnly and entirely dedicated to God—the building of another Church at Botany, and the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. He made allusion to his desire to promote Catholic education—the exertions he made for St. John's College and the charitable institutions throughout Sydney, The House of the Good Shepherd, St. Vincent's Hospital, the Randwick Asylum, and in fact everything good found in him an active supporter and everything bad an uncompromising an enemy.

During the delivery of the discourse the Very Reverend preacher was frequently compelled to pause in order to stifle the powerful emotions excited in him by the sad duty which he imposed upon himself, and when he related how he and the deceased had both taken the vows of the Benedictine order together he was not able to master his feelings which found vent in tears, and I need not remark that the congregation, men and women, wept like children. He concluded by stating that the good people of St. Benedict's had frequently telegraphed to him to have the corpse transferred to Sydney, but no he thought that the man who had been selected by His Grace to finish what was begun so nobly by another should rest side by side in the tomb with him. No doubt Bathurst would be anxious to erect a monument over him but let it not be one of brass, vain and transitory like frail mortality itself but one which would be most agreeable to the deceased, viz., a new schoolroom. He himself, had he but lived a few months more would have had one erected.

A meeting of the people will take place this evening for the carrying out of this object, of which I will inform you next week.

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Summary by the Mail, Freeman’s Journal, Sydney, 20 July 1864, p 6, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128800721:

We have the melancholy duty of recording another loss to our little band of priests in the death of Father Corish, which took place at Bathurst on the 30th of last month. It is only about six months since he was appointed to succeed Dean Grant in that important district and no one could have conceived that he would so soon have followed his lamented predecessor to the grave. Father Corish was born in Wexford, in the year 1818, and was ordained in St. Keiran's Ecclesiastical College in 1845, shortly after which he came to this colony and entered the Benedictine order. For thirteen years he had the spiritual direction of St. Benedict's parish where he was universally beloved, so much so indeed that his late parishioners requested as a particular favour that his remains might rest in his old parish church, but it was found impossible to comply in consequence of the almost impassable state of the roads between Sydney and Bathurst. Father Corish's energy and zeal in the cause of religion were well known to the clergy and laity all through the colony, and by his unwearied exertions St. Benedict's church was completely finished and its solemn consecration to the service of Almighty God by his Grace the Archbishop was performed early in the year 1862 — the only church in Australia that can claim that honour. Solemn services for the repose of the soul of Father Corish were celebrated at St. Mary's Cathedral, St. Benedict's Church, and at St. Mary's College Lyndhurst.

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The Late Father Corish, Freeman's Journal, Sydney, 1 July 1865, p 410, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128805391:

Twelve months having elapsed since the death of Father Corish in Bathurst, the anniversary of this melancholy occurrence was duly observed on yesterday in the Church of St. Benedict, with which his name is so much identified, and where he spent most of his priestly life. On Thursday evening accordingly a solemn dirge was chaunted at which Fathers McCarthy, Coll, O'Reilly, Dwyer and others were present. The church was crowded, a proof that the recollection of Father Corish still lives in the hearts of his former parishioners. On Friday morning private Masses were offered up for the repose of his soul, but owing to the fearful calamity of the previous evening only the clergy attached to St. Benedict's were present.

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Fr T.J. Linane, From Abel to Zundolovich, Vol. 2: Biographies of Priests on the Australian Scene up to 1900, 1980, pp 86-87:

Corish, Andrew Melitus Michael, OSB, Irish
Builder of Saint Benedict's, Sydney
Fortunately we can rely for information on the weighty tome known as The Australasian Benedictine Review, Tjurunga, 1974-8, edited by Sister Gregory, Pennant Hills which contains several references to this Irish Benedictine who was born in County Wexford. The rear of birth is given as 1818, but nothing is said about the year of ordination. From some source or other I have learned that he was ordained in 1846, after completion of studies at St. Kieran's Seminary, Kilkenny. If that information is correct, Corish was already ordained when he arrived in Sydney on the 'Sea Nymph' on 31 March 1847. As hinted by Fr William McGinty who arrived on the same day, some small pressure was put on new arrivals to join Benedictine ranks. Did Corish later regret that he had succumbed to that pressure? If not, why did he question and test the validity of his Benedictine vows by accompanying Anselm Curtis to Rome in 1854? Later Curtis was to leave the Order for secular pursuits (and a wife!). Corish on the other hand stuck it out, seemingly having thought out the matter in his stay in Rome and Subiaco in the 1854-6 period. To return to earlier details: he was professed as a choir monk for St. Mary's on 11 July 1848. Late in 1848 or early in 1849 he served at Liverpool, and in 1849-50 was stationed at Wollongong. Then came his long service to the area adjoining the busy Pitt Street station area of today. While serving that area from 1850 to 1854 he must have continued to live at St. Mary's. After his return from Rome and Italy on 26 January 1856, he was assigned the same charge; making himself responsible for the building of St. Benedict's Church, and coming to reside alongside it on 5 September 1857. A note before me states that he commenced building the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel at Waterloo, the foundation stone of which was laid on 15 August 1859. Why he was transferred from St. Benedict's to Bathurst in 1864 is not clear. Anyhow he died there on 29 June 1864, at the age of 46.

One feels a great sympathy for Father Corish, caught up as he was in the monastic troubles of the era. Despite it all he remained obedient and submissive to his vows, and intensely loyal to his Archbishop — who perhaps was exercising undue pressure in trying to Benedictinise the Australian Mission. (But, that, of course, is an area of dispute). Certainly Corish didn't fail in his perseverance and achievements. Reverting to the death date a few lines above, I recently received from Sr. Xavier Compton RSM, Marrickville, a part of a letter addressed by Dr. Poldling to his "Dear Gregory", which tells of the circumstances of Fr Melitus' death: "... Fr Austin Sheehy with Sr. Catherine, Miss Davis and another, had gone to Bathurst to prepare the way for a Convent for the Sisters of Mercy. It was in that week that the Telegraph informed us that Fr Melitus was dangerously ill. They reached Bathurst on Tuesday, the 28th, and so during the last few days of his sojourn on earth he had the consolation of being attended by his fellow novice and co-professed. He received all the rites of the Church, retained his senses to the last moment, made the responses to the last prayers, and as if passing into a secret sleep in Our Lord expired on the commemoration of St. Paul (sic!). He died as he lived, a simple-minded, God-fearing and God-loving son of St. Benedict. Though only a short time in Bathurst, he had done much ... solid instruction, great personal labour. He just lived long enough to be attended by the grateful hands of Mother Catherine, for whom and hers he had prepared a comfortable home. The people seemed to have appreciated his worth. He was lamented much more, I think, than Fr Therry — the latter seems quietly to be slipping out of mind ..."
(Footprints, Vol. 2, No. 11)
Ref.: MDHC File, Torquay, per Sr M. Gregory, OSB, Pennant Hills, and Sr Xavier Compton, Marrickville.