Parish dusts off its past

By PAUL QUIRINI- | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment

Take a walk outside St. John/St. Ann's Church in Albany, and you'll see a row of marble plaques honoring the earliest pastors and assistants of the parish when it was simply St. Ann's.

Beginning with Rev. Thomas J. Doran, the first pastor, and ending with Rev. George Powell, an assistant who died in 1916, the five plaques pay tribute to priests who served at St. Ann's during its early years.

There's also a plaque in the front portico of the church that honors Thomas F. Corcoran, a parishioner who died in 1889. "Erected by His Friends. May He Rest in Peace," the plaque reads.

Basement treasure

Rev. John Kirwin, parish priest, recently found the memorials in the church basement, and had them cleaned and mounted to preserve the memory of these pastors and their assistants.

"I thought it would be better to have the plaques out in the open than collecting dirt and dust down in the basement," he said. "People spent money on these, so they should get a little attention."

The one for the first pastor reads: "In Memory of Rev. Father Doran, First Pastor of This Congregation, Died July 4th 1880. Erected by the Members of the Purgatorian Society." Father Kirwin figures that the group's purpose was to honor the memory of the deceased.

Tributes

Father Doran's successor, Rev. Edward Terry, has a plaque that reads: "Rev. Father Terry, Second Pastor of This Congregation, Died May 15th 1899. Pray For Him."

There also are plaques honoring Rev. John Donahue, the third pastor who died in 1915, and assistant pastors Rev. Andrew Cunningham, who died in 1899, and Father Powell.

The short notes on the plaques don't even begin to touch upon the many contributions of these priests to the parish and the city of Albany. Father Terry, for example, earned national prominence in ecumenism, and was sought as a banquet orator and storyteller, even in foreign countries. Father Donahue opened a new parish school in 1908 and brought the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet to teach and minister.

Mounted

Father Kirwin had the plaques cleaned, and a welding company mounted them in place with metal frames on the wall along the Franklin Street side of the church.

At one time, the plaques probably were mounted in the church sanctuary, next to a larger plaque that shows Father Doran's self-effacing humor. That plaque, inscribed in Latin, asks St. Ann to intercede with God on behalf of John Tracey, church founder, and his family "and also pray for Rev. C. Doran, a most wretched sinner and unworthy pastor."

So far only a handful of parishioners have noticed the newly placed plaques. "Three or four people have commented on them, all favorably," Father Kirwin said.

Place in history

He enjoyed dusting off these pieces of parish history, not only for his parishioners' sake but also because St. John's and St. Ann's churches hold a special place in his heart.

St. John's was where his maternal grandparents were married, and St. Ann's is where his father grew up; where his uncle, Msgr. Gerald Kirwin, celebrated his first Mass; and where his paternal grandparents were married.

"I'm conscious of the history of this place because this is my ancestral parish," he said. "I have roots in both St. John's and St. Ann's."

(07-29-99) [[In-content Ad]]