Timothy F. Keating, O.S.A.

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1911 – 1993 (May 30)

Timothy Francis Keating was born September 6, 1911, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, one of four sons and two daughters of John A. Keating and Margaret McGrath. He was baptized on September 12, 1911, at Saint Mary’s Church, Lawrence, and attended Saint Mary’s Parochial School. After graduating from Lawrence High School in 1929, he was accepted as a postgraduate postulant at Augustinian Academy, Staten Island, New York. In September 1930 he began his year as a novice at Our Mother of Good Counsel Novitiate, New Hamburg, N.Y. On September 12, 1931, he professed simple vows, and three years later, solemn vows. He graduated with a B.A. degree from Villanova in 1935 and began the study of theology at Augustinian College in Washington, D.C. During the summer months he took graduate courses in romance languages at nearby Catholic University. Timothy Keating was ordained to the priesthood in the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on June 7, 1938. Following ordination Father Keating continued theology and graduate studies. He was granted a master’s degree in French from Catholic University in 1939. Father Keating continued studies later while teaching, taking post-graduate courses in French at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and biology at Villanova University, Villanova, PA.

Father Keating’s first assignment in 1939 was to Malvern Preparatory School, Malvern, PA, where for the next 24 years he taught a variety of subjects: French, Latin, religion, English, and biology. In 1953 he was transferred to Prendergast, later re-named Monsignor Bonner High School, in Drexel Hill, PA. He returned to Malvern where he remained until 1960 when he was assigned to Saint Thomas Monastery on the Villanova campus. For the next three years he taught in the theology department. 

In 1964 he was appointed associate pastor at Saint Paul’s Church in Mechanicville, N.Y. In 1968 he was transferred to Saint Augustine’s in Troy, N.Y. Later, he returned to Saint Paul’s in Mechanicville as pastor and prior. In 1976 he was assigned as prior and pastor of the Church of the Resurrection of Our Lord in Dania, Florida, where he remained until 1978 when he was transferred to Our Mother of Good Counsel Monastery on the campus of Merrimack College, North Andover, MA. There he engaged in a variety of ministries in the greater Merrimack Valley. In 1980, Father Keating, with his background in romance languages, offered to go the Augustinian Mission in Peru, South America, however his age and health made this impossible. In June of 1988 he celebrated his golden jubilee as a priest.

Father Keating died on May 30, 1993. A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on June 3 at the Collegiate Church of Christ the Teacher on the campus of Merrimack College, North Andover, MA. The following day interment took place in the Augustinian plot of Saint Mary’s Cemetery, Lawrence, MA.