Terence Leo Connolly was born on September 26, 1888 in North Attleboro, Massachusetts to Terence and Catherine (Hayden) Connolly. He received his early education at Grove Street Grammar School in Providence, Rhode Island, before attending Pawtucket High School in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. In 1908, Connolly entered the Jesuit Novitiate of St. Andrew-on-the-Hudson in New York, where he studied for four years. Connolly was ordained in 1922, having studied and taught at Woodstock College, Maryland, Fordham University, New York, and Georgetown University, Washington, DC. That same year, he earned a BA from Woodstock College, and went on to earn an MA from the same institution in 1924. In 1930, Connolly graduated with a PhD from Fordham University.
In 1929, Connolly became a professor of English and head of the English Department at Boston College in Massachusetts. Connolly had an interest in Catholic poetry, particularly the works of Francis Thompson, about whom he wrote Francis Thompson: In His Paths, published in 1944. He traveled extensively in England and Ireland. In 1946, Connolly became director of the Boston College libraries, and remained in the role until he was named director of special collections in 1959. Connolly died on March 24, 1961.
