James A. Leonard, O.S.A.

1862 – 1894 (March 22)

James Augustine Leonard, son of John Leonard and Helen Walsh, was born on Good Friday, April 17, 1862, in Lawrence Massachusetts, and was baptized on Easter Sunday in the Church of Saint Mary, Lawrence. On February 2, 1882, he entered the novitiate at Villanova, Pa., and professed vows on February 2, 1883. He studied in Rome, and, on April 9, 1887, he was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Parocchi at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran. Two of his brothers, Daniel and John also became friars of our Province.

Father Leonard served in the parish of Our Mother of Consolation, Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, and, in New York, at the parishes of Saint James Minor, Carthage, Immaculate Conception, Hoosick Falls, and Saint Patrick, Cambridge.

Father Leonard died in Cambridge, after a week’s illness, on Holy Thursday, March 22, 1894, at the age of 32. His funeral Mass was celebrated on Easter Monday at Cambridge, with burial the following day in Saint Mary-Immaculate Conception Cemetery in Lawrence, Massachusetts.