Patrick O'Beirne

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The Reverend

Patrick O'Beirne
Orders
OrdinationMarch 14, 1834
Personal details
Born(1808-12-31)December 31, 1808
Mohill, County Leitrim
DiedMarch 20, 1883(1883-03-20) (aged 74)
NationalityIrish
DenominationRoman Catholic, Latin Church
OccupationPriest, author

Patrick O'Beirne (December 31, 1808 – March 20, 1883[1]) was an Irish-born priest who ministered in the Archdiocese of Boston.

Personal life[edit]

He was born in Mohill, County Leitrim, on December 31, 1808, and arrived in America in 1833.[1] His brother, John O'Beirne, was also a priest in Boston.[1] Patrick died on March 20, 1883, and was buried next to his brother John on the grounds of St. Joseph's church in Roxbury.[1][2]

Ministry[edit]

O'Beirne was ordained a priest in 1835[a] at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston[3][1] by Bishop Benedict Fenwick.[2] Over his career he served in Vermont, Rhode Island, and Maine, which were then parts of the Diocese of Boston.[4][2]

Immediately after his ordination, he spent some time at the cathedral before being transferred to St. Mary's in the North End[5][1][6] and then to Burlington, Vermont.[1] From 1841 to 1843, he served at what would later become the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland, Maine.[7][8]

O'Beirne then was assigned to Roxbury's St. Patrick's parish, in Boston.[1][9] As pastor of St. Patrick's, he established several new churches, including St. Joseph's, in Roxbury,[10] and St. Thomas Aquinas in Jamaica Plain.[11][12][13] He served as the first pastor of St. Joseph's[3][14] and remained there until his death in 1883.[15][16] At the suggestion of the religious sisters who ran the school, He also built a school house for the parish on the grounds of Notre Dame Academy in Roxbury.[17][18] In 1858, he was the principal celebrant at the solemn high Mass dedicating Immaculate Conception Church in Salem, Massachusetts.[19] Ordained for less than a decade, the 33-year-old O'Beirne had charge of the Catholics in Dedham, Norwood, Randolph, Holliston, Walpole, and Needham, as well as Roxbury.[4]

Prior to his pastorate at St. Joseph's, O'Beirne had charge of the parish and mission in Quincy, Massachusetts, in West Quincy, St. Mary's 1843–45.[20] While there, he purchased the land for what would become St. Mary's Church in Randolph.[21][22] He also served in St. Mary's early days.[23] Prior to the church being built, he would occasionally come out to say Mass for the Catholics of that community.[24] He was also briefly pastor of St. Rose of Lima in Chelsea, Massachusetts[25][26] and served at St. John the Evangelist in Hopkington, Massachusetts,[27] and St. Mary's in Holliston, Massachusetts.[28]

O'Beirne served on the Archbishop's Council[29] and opened the Toll Gate Cemetery on Hyde Park Avenue.[30]

Dispute at St. Mary's[edit]

O'Beirne served as co-pastor of St. Mary's Church in the North End with Fr. Thomas J. O’Flaherty beginning in 1840.[31][26] The parish, made up largely of Irish immigrants, soon split into two camps with each supporting one of the two priests.[31] The differences were partly political and partly about church governance.[31] By January 1842 the congregation was so divided that Bishop Fenwick was worried that violence may erupt and so visited on January 9, 1842, to try to restore the peace.[31] During Mass, he preached an hour long sermon on obedience and warned that those who attended mass meetings of protest could be excommunicated.[31]

Just a few days later, on January 13, 1842, a large group of O'Flaherty supporters gathered. When a member of the O'Beirne camp disrupted the meeting's opening address, a "mob situation" arose.[31] Police had to be called in to restore order.[31] In response, Fenwick wrote to parishioners and invited them to attend another meeting on January 16, 1842.[31] Parishioners from other parishes attended the meeting, disrupting it, and cutting it short to avoid another mob break out.[31] Fenwick then ordered the two priests to publicly reconcile on January 23, 1842.[32]

Not long after, O'Beirne requested a transfer to a different parish and was sent to Providence, Rhode Island, which was then part of the Boston Diocese.[32][26] His supporters at St. Mary's were not happy, however, and 400 of them signed a petition calling for his return.[32] When Fenwick refused, a riot broke out on February 20, 1842, during a vespers service O'Flaherty was presiding over.[32]

Parishioners were arrested, and Fenwick placed the parish under an interdict that shuttered it for two weeks.[32][26] In Providence, O'Beirnes new parishioners were not happy with him and told Fenwick so in insulting terms that the bishop would call "insolent" and "anti-Catholic".[32][33] Still seeking a solution, Fenwick reassigned all the priests in the troubled parishes in March.[32] O'Beirne moved again, this time to Taunton, Massachusetts.[34]

Dedham[edit]

By 1846, the Catholic community in Dedham, Massachusetts, was well established enough that the town became part of the mission of St. Joseph's Church.[35][36][37][38] The flood of Irish immigrants escaping the Great Famine necessitated holding Mass in the Temperance Hall, often O’Beirne.[37][39][40][35][36][41][42][43][44][45] Mass was also occasionally celebrated in the Crystal Palace on Washington Street.[46] Worshipers came from Dedham, South Dedham, West Dedham, and West Roxbury.[46]

While at St. Joseph's, he had charge of the mission in Dedham, Massachusetts, and he established what is today St. Mary's Church there.[47][45] In 1856 the cornerstone was laid and, in 1857, the first St. Mary's Church was completed on Washington Street between Spruce and Marion Streets.[35][37][38][48][49] On Easter Sunday, April 12, 1857, Father O’Beirne said Mass for the first time in the new 600 person church.[39][49][50][38][42][4][51][b] Reading from the 20th chapter of John's Gospel, O'Beirne proclaimed the news of Jesus' empty tomb.[38] Though it was still part of the Roxbury Parish, O'Beirne or one of his assistants would travel to Dedham each Sunday to say mass.[51]

In April 1863 he purchased the Unitarian meetinghouse in South Dedham, today the parish of St. Catherine's in Norwood.[51][52] Prior to this, he would say mass in the homes of South Dedham parishioners.[53][54][52]

O'Beirne remained pastor of St. Mary's until 1866, when Fr. John P. Brennan took over.[39][40]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Sulivan has the date as the year as 1834.[1]
  2. ^ One source says it was Christmas Day.[43]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sullivan 1895, p. 148.
  2. ^ a b c Byrne et al. 1899, p. 145.
  3. ^ a b Winsor & Jewett 1881, p. 525.
  4. ^ a b c Letter of Ksenya Kiebuzinski, Archdiocese of Boston archivist, to Robert Hanson, Dedham Historical Society, February 8, 1990. Archives of the Dedham Historical Society
  5. ^ Sullivan 1895, p. 42.
  6. ^ Winsor & Jewett 1881, p. 524.
  7. ^ Byrne et al. 1899, p. 541.
  8. ^ Byrne et al. 1899, p. 496.
  9. ^ Sullivan 1895, p. 50.
  10. ^ Sullivan 1895, pp. 147–148.
  11. ^ Sullivan 1895, p. 190.
  12. ^ Winsor & Jewett 1881, p. 540.
  13. ^ Byrne et al. 1899, p. 152.
  14. ^ Sullivan 1895, p. 146.
  15. ^ Byrne et al. 1899, p. 202.
  16. ^ Winsor & Jewett 1881, p. 527.
  17. ^ Sullivan 1895, p. 231.
  18. ^ Byrne et al. 1899, p. 177.
  19. ^ Sullivan 1895, p. 453.
  20. ^ Byrne et al. 1899, p. 331.
  21. ^ Sullivan 1895, p. 696.
  22. ^ Sullivan 1895, p. 712.
  23. ^ Hurd 1884, p. 197.
  24. ^ Sullivan 1895, p. 695.
  25. ^ Sullivan 1895, p. 118.
  26. ^ a b c d Byrne et al. 1899, p. 127.
  27. ^ Sullivan 1895, p. 769.
  28. ^ Sullivan 1895, p. 765.
  29. ^ "Dust to Dust". The Boston Globe. April 23, 1878. p. 2. Retrieved September 20, 2019.
  30. ^ "Ask The Globe". The Boston Globe. September 24, 1981. p. 63. Retrieved September 20, 2019.
  31. ^ a b c d e f g h i Patkus 2001, p. 67.
  32. ^ a b c d e f g Patkus 2001, p. 68.
  33. ^ Byrne et al. 1899, pp. 394–395.
  34. ^ Byrne et al. 1899, p. 415.
  35. ^ a b c Vogler, Paula (April 21, 2016). "Parish looks to origins as members celebrate anniversary". The Dedham Transcript. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
  36. ^ a b "St. Mary's: "A cathedral in the wilderness". The Dedham Times. October 5, 2001. p. 14.
  37. ^ a b c "History: St. Mary's Church". St. Mary's Church, Dedham, MA. Retrieved March 9, 2015.
  38. ^ a b c d "New Catholic Church". The Dedham Transcript. October 30, 1886. p. 3.
  39. ^ a b c Byrne et al. 1899, p. 323.
  40. ^ a b Hurd 1884, p. 78.
  41. ^ Sullivan 1895, p. 667.
  42. ^ a b St. Mary's Church, Dedham, Massachusetts, 1866-1966, Our Centennial Year. Hackensack, N.J.: Custombook, Inc. Ecclesiastical Color Publishers. 1966.
  43. ^ a b "St. Mary's at Dedham: First Services in the Basement of the New Catholic Church Crowded--Many Protestant Donors Present". Boston Daily Globe. October 25, 1886. p. 5. Retrieved March 13, 2015.[permanent dead link]
  44. ^ "Daniel Slattery's house and the Temperance Hall". The Dedham Times. August 8, 1995. p. 6.
  45. ^ a b Vogler, Paula (April 29, 2016). "The priests and their influence on the parish". The Dedham Transcript. Retrieved September 20, 2019.
  46. ^ a b Smith 1936, p. 100.
  47. ^ Sullivan 1895, pp. 667–668.
  48. ^ Cook, Louis Atwood (1918). History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, 1622-1918. Vol. 1. S.J. Clarke publishing Company. p. 425.
  49. ^ a b Smith 1936, p. 101.
  50. ^ Hurd 1884, p. 323.
  51. ^ a b c Sullivan 1895, p. 668.
  52. ^ a b Byrne et al. 1899, p. 329.
  53. ^ Sullivan 1895, p. 681.
  54. ^ Hurd 1884, p. 505.

Works cited[edit]

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