John J. A. Glynn, O.S.A.

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1904 – 1981 (April 26)

John Joseph Augustine Glynn, the son of John Glynn and Katherine Walsh, was born on the feast Saint Augustine, 1904, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. There he received his early education at Saint Mary’s Grammar School and at Lawrence High School. Following graduation, John entered Villanova in 1920, was received as a novice in 1922. He made simle profession of vows on June 24, 1923, and solemn profession in 1926. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Villanova College in 1925 where he also followed his theological courses and was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Dougherty and at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia on June 2, 1928. After completing graduate studies, he was granted a Master’s degree by Catholic University in Washington on June 11, 1929. 

For many years Father Glynn devoted his talents to Catholic education. His first appointment was as a teacher at Malvern Preparatory School, from 1929 to 1935. He then joined the community at Saint Augustine High School in San Diego, California, and in 1942 was assigned to Saint Rita High School in Chicago. His last assignment in classroom teaching was in the academic year, 1942-1943 at Cascia Hall Preparatory School, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Father Glynn thoroughly enjoyed teaching wherever he happened to be and did not look forward to being assigned elsewhere, yet when he arrived at another school he was content, and this was particularly true of his tenure in Tulsa. In later years he was engaged in pastoral work, first at Saint Mary’s Parish, Lawrence, MA, from 1962 to 1965, and finally at Saint Laurence O’Toole, from 1965 to 1979.

In December, 1979, failing health required that he be admitted in residence at Mary Immaculate Nursing Home in Lawrence where he died on April 26, 1981. Father Glynn devoted particular attention to the preparation and delivery of his sermons. Always proper in his demeanor he was accorded a high place in the affections of the parishioners whom he served, which received formal public recognition particularly at the celebration of his golden jubilee of ordination on June 4, 1978. Father Glynn is buried in the Augustinian plot in Saint Mary’s Cemetery, Lawrence, MA.