1891 – 1960 (October 12)
Joseph Peter Mullins, the son of Patrick Mullins and Margaret Boyle, was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts on February 27, 1891. He was baptized in Saint Mary’s Church in that city. He entered the novitiate at Villanova, Pennsylvania, on June 25, 1910. and after professing his simple vows on June 25, 1911, he was sent to Rome, Italy to continue his studies. He made his solemn profession there on January 30, 1915, and in June of that year, with the outbreak of war in Europe, he returned to the United States where he was ordained to the priesthood on May 27, 1916 in the Cathedral of Philadelphia by Archbishop Edmond Prendergast.
Father Mullins’ ministry was principally spent in the parochial apostolate. In 1916 he was assigned to Holy Rosary Parish, Lawrence, Massachusetts. Four years later he was transferred to Saint James, Carthage and, in 1925, was appointed to teach at Malvern Preparatory School. The following year he was stationed at Saint Paul’s Parish, Mechanicville, New York, and in 1927 at Saint Clare, Detroit, Michigan. He returned east in 1933 to spend a year at Our Mother of Good Counsel Parish, Bryn Mawr, and then was reassigned to Chicago at Saint Clare Parish. In 1935 he was appointed to Saint Rita, Philadelphia, Father Mullins spent two years from 1925 to 1927 teaching at Malvern Preparatory School. In 1942, he was assigned to Saint Thomas Monastery at Villanova, where he remained until his death.
Father Mullins was 69 when he died in Philadelphia’s Fitzgerald-Mercy Hospital on October 12, 1960. His Funeral Mass was celebrated on Monday, October 17, 1960 in Lawrence, with burial in Saint Mary’s Cemetery.
