1902 – 1951 (December 28)
Brendan Aloysius McConnell, son of Frank McConnell and Anna Campbell, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 16, 1902. He attended Our Lady of Victory School and West Catholic High School, and then entered Saint Rita’s Hall at Villanova, Pa. He entered the novitiate in 1924 and made his profession of simple vows on June 26, 1925. He was solemnly professed on June 26, 1928 and was ordained to the priesthood at the National Shrine, Washington, DC, on June 10, 1930 by Bishop John McNamara, after completing his studies at Saint Mary’s Hall, Villanova and at Augustinian College, Washington.
Father McConnell’s first assignment, in 1931, was as a teacher at Cascia Hall, Tulsa, Oklahoma. The following year he was assigned as an assistant at Saint Augustine Pairsh, Detroit, Michigan. In 1934, he moved to Our Mother of Consolation Parish, Chestnut Hill, Pa., until he was transferred to Saint Augustine Parish, Troy, N.Y. in 1938, and then to Saint Nicholas of Tolentine, the Bronx the following year. Five years later, Father McConnell was appointed to Saint John’s Parish, Schaghticoke, and in 1946, to Saint Paul, Mechanicville.
Serious illness forced Father McConnell to retire to the Villanova Monastery in 1947. He died in Philadelphia’s Graduate Hospital on December 28, 1959 at the age of 49 of cancer. A Solemn Requiem Mass was offered on Monday, December 31 with Father James Donnellon, O.S.A., prior of the monastery, as celebrant, and Father William Lunney, O.S.A., as homilist. Father McConnell is buried at Villanova in the Community Cemetery.
