John P. McGuire, O.S.A.

1891 – 1957 (May 30)

John P. McGuire, son of William McGuire and Margaret Hutchenhausen, was born in Philadelphia, PA on March 18, 1891. He attended St. Columba Elementary School and Roman Catholic High School and then entered the novitiate at Villanova, PA on June 20, 1912, and was professed the following year. Following philosophical and theological studies, he was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Denis Dougherty in the St. Charles Borromeo Seminary Chapel on June 8, 1919.

Father McGuire was assigned, following ordination, as a teacher in the Colegio San Agustin in Havana, Cuba. In 1922, he served as Vice-President of Villanova College. In 1926, he was appointed assistant pastor at Saint Augustine’s Parish in Andover, Massachusetts. The following year he was transferred to Villanova Prep in Ojai, California, where he remained until 1938. He then returned to parochial ministry at Saint Nicholas in Atlantic City, New Jersey until 1945. Because of poor health he was sent to the Villanova monastery, but returned to teach in Ojai, California from 1947 to January, 1957, when he once again was assigned to the Villanova monastery, Villanova, Pa.
Father McGuire died suddenly at the monastery at Villanova of a cerebral hemorrhage on Ascension Thursday, May 20, 1957 at the age of 66. A Requiem Mass was celebrated by Fr. John O’Leary, O.S.A. on Tuesday, June 4, 1957. Father John Fagan, O.S.A. preached, after which Father McGuire was buried in Villanova’s Community Cemetery, with Prior Provincial Henry Greenlee, O.S.A. presiding.