 Fr. Dominic Edward Donnelly, OP
Fr. Dominic was a great builder on both coasts. He was born in Providence, Rhode
Island, raised in New York City and educated at Saint Xavier's College. He took the
habit in 1873 but, because of sickness, put off profession until 1876. After
ordination, he was stationed at Holy Rosary priory in Minneapolis for three years, and was
a chaplain for the sisters for a year after that. From 1884 to 1889 he was elected
superior and Pastor of St. Dominic's in Washington, DC, and it was here that his skill at
building projects came through. On March 12, 1887 a fire destroyed the beautiful
church. He organized the most successful fair of that parish for the reconstruction
of the church. In 1889, he was sent to Denver to organize St. Dominic's there, and
at this time became a diocesan priest. He became a military chaplain during the
Spanish-American War, after which he returned to be a priest of the diocese of Portland,
Oregon. As Pastor of North Bend, his second great building project was
completed. He acquired the land, money, and materials to build the first hospital in
southwestern Oregon. It was called Mercy Hospital and was completed in 1906.
In 1910 he resigned his pastorship in Oregon and returned to the Order, officially joining
our province. After a stay in Benicia, he went to St. Dominic's in San Francisco and
oversaw his third building project, the building of the priory that now stands there.
In 1915, he moved to St. Vincent's in Vallejo and supervised the building of the
re-enforced concrete school. Sick in body after much service to the Church and the
churches he died at the age of 71.
Source
O'Daniel, Victor Francis, OP, The Dominican Province of
Saint Joseph, Historico-Biographical Studies. New York: National Headquarters of the
Holy Name Society, 1942.
|
