1866 – 1916 (September 25)
Joseph Aloysius Moran, son of John Moran and Catherine Lyons, was born in Washington, D. C., on August 15, 1866, and was baptized at St. Patrick Church, Washington. He attended school in Ottawa, Canada, at St. Joseph College and in Ellicott City at St. Charles College. He then attended St. Mary Seminary in Baltimore.
From January, 1895 until June, 1896, he taught at Jefferson College in Louisiana and at Gonzaga College, Washington, and was a reporter for a D.C. newspaper. For a short time, at the end of 1896, he taught at Villanova, but on February 2, 1897, he entered the novitiate there, and professed simple vows on February 3, 1898. He made his solemn profession on May 29, 1901 and was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Patrick Ryan at St. Charles Seminary, Overbrook, on June 1, 1901.
From July, 1901 until July, 1905, Father Moran served at Saint Mary’s, Lawrence, Massachusetts, Saint Mary’s, Waterford, New York and at Our Mother of Consolation, Chestnut Hill. On July 4, 1905, he was appointed Vice President at Villanova College and taught elocution in the preparatory school there. The following year he became editor and manager of Good Counsel Magazine, positions he held until June, 1908.
In 1911, Father Moran was assigned to Saint Nicholas of Tolentine Parish in the Bronx and the following year to Augustinian Academy, Staten Island. In July, 1914, he was assigned to El Cristo Parish in Havana, Cuba, but returned to Villanova in November, 1915 in ill health.
Father Moran died at Villanova on September 25, 1916 at the age of 50. Father Nicholas Murphy, Prior Provincial, was celebrant and preacher at the Requiem Mass, after which burial took place in the Community Cemetery at Villanova.
