[1] In 1861, Verdon was appointed a professor in the ecclesiastical seminary of Dublin, the Holy Cross College, Clonliffe, of which nine years later, he became president.
He enlarged the buildings there, constructed a "magnificent church" and considerably improved the quality of the teaching to raise the prestige of the college.
Verdon then joined the staff of the Irish College in Rome, where as vice-rector[2] he also made improvements and was raised to the dignity of a domestic prelate.
In 1888 he was recruited by Cardinal Moran to go to Sydney to take charge of the newly erected St Patrick's College, Manly.
At the Provincial Council, held in Sydney in 1895, he was elected by the Bishops of Australia to represent them and act as their agent in Rome, and, in February 1896 when he had reached Melbourne on his way there, Verdon received news of his appointment to the see of Dunedin.
Bishop Brodie of Christchurch (who had been a student of Verdon's 28 years before at St Patrick's College, Manly) celebrated the Requiem Mass and preached the panegyric.
[6] Verdon's uncle and mentor, Cardinal Cullen had insisted on complete loyalty to Rome, the pope and the magisterium.
He also preferred to send talented seminarians to Rome for further training and he decorated Holy Cross College in a very Roman way.