Stephen F. Lanen, O.S.A.

1902 – 1968 (November 7)

Stephen Frederick Lanen was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts on July 16, 1902, to Frederick Lanen and Mary Garrity. He received his primary education there at Saint Mary Parochial School, and his secondary education at Saint John’s Preparatory School in Danvers. In 1920 he began studies at Villanova, but by February, 1921, he had decided to enter the Augustinian Order. He was received into the novitiate in February, 1921 and made his simple profession of vows on February 19, 1922. He was solemnly professed on the same day in 1925. Stephen finished his collegiate studies in June 1924 and went onto study theology. He was ordained to the priesthood in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia on June 11, 1927 by the most Reverend Michael J. Crane, D.D., Auxiliary Bishop of Philadelphia. He celebrated his first Solemn Mass the following day in Saint Mary’s Church, Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Father Lanen was assigned to Cascia Hall Preparatory School in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1928. After several years there, he was transferred in 1936 to Augustinian Academy on Staten Island. In 1937 he was assigned to Villanova where he was a member of the English Department. In 1938 he was assigned to Saint Nicholas of Tolentine Parish, Jamaica, New York, and in August, 1945, was to the Province Mission Band. He became its rector in 1951, and in 1953 he continued in this post while also serving as a definitor of the Province. 

Father Lanen received a temporary assignment to Saint Augustine Parish, Troy, N.Y., in December, 1958, and the following November returned for another three years of teaching at Villanova. In January 1962 he was assigned to Merrimack College, in North Andover, Massachusetts, where he taught until failing health forced him to stop.

Death came following a serious operation for cancer of the throat in New England Baptist Hospital on Thursday, November 7, 1968. The Funeral Mass was celebrated at Merrimack’s Chapel of Christ the Teacher on November 11. Burial was in the Augustinian plot of Saint Mary’s cemetery, Lawrence, Massachusetts.