Rev. Patrick Gallagher, OFM Conv.

A funeral Mass was offered Sept. 10 at St. Adalbert Church, Elmhurst, N.Y., for Rev. Patrick (Roy) Gallagher, OFM Conv., who died Sept. 4. He was 78 and had been a Conventual Franciscan friar since 1959.

A native of Brooklyn, he was first a professor of Scripture at St. Anthony-on-Hudson in Rensselaer; then a chaplain for Franciscan Sisters and a high school in Syracuse; and then an associate pastor in Hoboken, N.J., and elsewhere. From 1988-97, he was pastor of St. Cecilia’s parish in Fonda; after a stint as pastor of Assumption Church in Syracuse, he returned to St. Cecilia’s, serving as pastor there and at Sacred Heart in Tribes Hill until 2014. His last assignment was to St. Adalbert Friary in Elmhurst.

Father Gallagher’s religious order referred to St. Cecilia’s and Sacred Heart as “beloved” to him. The friar’s ministry there was quiet; in interviews with The Evangelist, he spoke of his several hundred parishioners taking pride in St. Cecilia as a parish patron saint, known for her musical skills — as was the pastor himself, who enjoyed leading the music at both parishes.

“I love music,” declared Father Gallagher, who is surely being welcomed by a heavenly choir.

Survivors include his sister, Kathleen of Ridgewood, N.Y. Interment was in St. John’s Cemetery, Queens.