Edward M. Murphy, O.S.A.

1861 – 1885 (July 18)

Edward Maurice Murphy, son of Maurice Murphy and Mary Cotter, was born on December 28, 1861 in North Andover, Massachusetts, and was baptized on January 5, 1862 in Immaculate Conception Church, Lawrence, Ma. He had four brothers and two sisters. Edward entered the novitiate at Villanova, Pennsylvania, on February 2, 1883 and pronounced simple vows before Villanova prior, Joseph Coleman, O.S.A., on February 3, 1884. He was sent that same year to Atlanta, Georgia, because of ill health, and returned to Villanova in 1885 somewhat improved.

He was assigned as a cleric to Immaculate Conception Parish, Lawrence, Ma., where he died on July 18, 1885 at the age of 23 of consumption. All four of Edward’s profession classmates died at a young age: John J. Regan at 22 years, in 1884, also of consumption; Andrew McLoughlin at 36 years, in 1899, of typhoid; Joseph Moriarty at 42 years, in 1905; and Hugh Gallagher at 56, in 1919.

Brother Edward Murphy is buried in the Augustinian plot of Saint Mary’s Cemetery, Lawrence.