January 3, 2017

UPDATED: Father Albert E. Breton dies at 89; served in number of French language parishes

REGIONAL
Staff Report

HOLYOKE- Father Albert E. Breton, a diocesan priest and member of the ordination class of 1954, passed away early Jan. 1 at the Mont Marie Healthcare Center in Holyoke.  He was 89 years old.

Born Nov. 24 1927, Father Breton was a native of Springfield and parishioner of the former St. Thomas Aquinas Parish where he attended the parish elementary school.  He went on to attend Cathedral High School and then onto St. Francis College in Biddeford, Maine. He was accepted into the Grand Seminary in Montreal where he graduated in 1954. On May 29 of that same year, he was ordained as a priest by the late Springfield Bishop Christopher J. Weldon.

For the first 21 years of his priesthood he served as a curate in a number of western Massachusetts parishes. In 1975 he was appointed to his first pastorate at the former St. Louis de France Parish, West Springfield.  From there he went on to serve as pastor of Notre Dame Parish, Adams and then St. Theresa Parish, Agawam, from where he retired in 1997.

In 2002 he became chaplain at Mont Marie Healthcare Center, where he took up residence in 2003.

The wake for Father Breton will be held at 9 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 6 in the Mont Marie Chapel, followed by the funeral Mass at 11 a.m. A luncheon will be held at Mont Marie after the Mass. Burial will be in Notre Dame Cemetery in South Hadley.