January 24, 2023

Redemptorist Father James Brennan dies; served at St. Francis Chapel, Springfield

REGIONAL
Staff report

SPRINGFIELD — Redemptorist Father James Brennan, of the Stella Maris community, Timonium, Md., died on Jan. 20 at age 84. He served at St. Francis Chapel in downtown Springfield, Mass., from 2006-2011.

The son of James Patrick and Margaret (Gorman)Brennan, he was born on June 23, 1938, in Boston and baptized at Blessed Sacrament Church in Jamaica Plain on July 31, 1938. He attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Boston.

He attended St. Mary Preparatory Seminary from 1952 to 1958 and professed temporary vows at St. Mary’s, Ilchester, Md., Aug. 2, 1959, and perpetual vows at Mt. St. Alphonsus, Esopus, N.Y., Sept. 2, 1962. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 21, 1964.

His second novitiate, as with other members of that ordination class, was waived. At Mt. St. Alphonsus, he obtained a bachelor of arts degree in 1961 and master of religious education degree in 1965. After ordination, Father Brennan’s first assignment was to teach at St. Mary’s, North East from 1965 to 1966. He then went for further studies at St. Louis University from 1966 to 1968, where he earned a master of arts in English. 

He returned to teach at St. Mary’s from 1968 to 1977. From April to September 1977, he was stationed at the Mission Church, Boston and then Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Brooklyn from October 1977 to January 1982.

A new ministry opened for him successively in Santiago, Dominican Republic, and then Caguas and Guayama in Puerto Rico in 1982. On June 10, 1984, he formally transferred to the Province of San Juan, but with the option of returning later to the Baltimore Province. He did so in 1991 living at St. Peter the Apostle in Philadelphia while taking a sabbatical program.

He became rector of St. Cecelia in Spanish Harlem, New York City in 1993. In 1999, he was the rector of Holy Redeemer College in Washington, D.C. In 2006 he joined Father Tim Keating in a new apostolate in Springfield, Mass., revitalizing the St. Francis Chapel in downtown Springfield and developing the Latino ministry in the city center. His abilities in Spanish were utilized again in Philadelphia, where, beginning in July 2011, he was associate pastor of Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish before a stroke led to the need for further care at the St. John Neumann Residence in 2016. 

Funeral services for Father Brennan will be held on Thursday, Jan. 26 at Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Mission) Church; 1545 Tremont Street, Boston, beginning with visitation at 9 a.m. The funeral liturgy will be celebrated at 10 a.m. with Bishop Bruce Lewandowski as presider and preacher. Burial will follow at the Redemptorist plot in Mt. Calvary Cemetery, 366 Cummins Highway, Roslindale, MA 02131.