Fr. Emmet Murphy OFM

July 27, 2022

Although I was raised at St. Agnes in Arlington, Mass. — a parish staffed by diocesan priests — I was one of the nine candidates who joined the Franciscans of Holy Name in 1951. St. Anthony Shrine in downtown Boston happened to be my first contact with the friars. Their joy and ministry immediately impressed me.

After working for ten years as a salesman in Boston, I entered the Franciscan brothers training program in Rye Beach, N.H., followed by a year in the novitiate in Paterson, N.J. During these formative years, we practiced discipline and learned the rule of the Order of Friars Minor, plus the history of the Order and of the Province. My love for the Order and Province grew deeper.

In mid-summer 1957, I was transferred from the lush rolling hills of the scenic Delaware Valley at St. Joseph Seraphic Seminary in Callicoon, N.Y., to the gritty, noisy, busy streets of midtown Manhattan, a half-block from Penn Station and Madison Square Garden. It proved to be quite an adjustment for me. As always, the community of friars — 77 in number — at St. Francis of Assisi Church on 31st Street was welcoming and fraternal.