1858 – 1929 (August 21)

John Patrick Fahey, son of James Fahey and Anna Holland was born at Valley Falls, New York, on January 26, 1858. He studied in public schools in Pittstown, N.Y., after which he entered the novitiate at Villanova, Pennsylvania in 1877. He made his simple profession of vows on January 29, 1878 and solemn profession of February 2, 1881. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 11, 1881, by Bishop Jeremiah Shanahan of Harrisburg, in the Church of the Vincentians in Germantown, Pa.

Father Fahey was assigned on July 5, 1881 to Saint Mary’s Parish, Lawrence, Massachusetts. In November, 1882, he was transferred to Saint Augustine’s, Philadelphia, and in 1890 returned to Lawrence. He was appointed rector of Saint Paul’s Church in Mechanicville, N.Y., and a Definitor of the Province in July, 1894. In 1902 he was assigned to Villanova and, the following year, became editor of Good Counsel Magazine. Subsequent assignments took him to Havana, Cuba, Lansingburgh, N. Y. and Chicago, Illinois. For a time he was also assigned to the Province Mission Band. In this last ministry, he once preached on the campus of Notre Dame, Indiana, a retreat to 285 priests of Chicago, including Archbishop Quigley, his two auxiliaries and two visiting missionary bishops.

Father Fahey died suddenly in Philadelphia's Misericordia Hospital on August 21, 1929 at the age of 71. He is buried at Villanova in the Community Cemetery.