Old travel Blog photograph of Father Patrick Power in Edinburgh, Scotland. Father Power was born in Ireland on October 20, 1844, the Feast of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin. When he was four years old, his mother and father died, and he was brought to the United States by an older brother. He was mentored by Father James Fitton, the pastor of Most Holy Redeemer Church in East Boston. He attended the Petit Seminary in Laval, Quebec and Saint Joseph’s Provincial Theological Seminary in Troy, New York, He was ordained a priest in the Cathedral Chapel of the Holy Cross by the Bishop of Boston, the Most Reverend John Joseph Williams on September 7, 1867, the eve of the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The academic year of 1867-1868 found Father Power at the University of Louvain, Belgium where he studied canon law. Upon his return to the United States, he was assigned to parishes in Springfield and Chicopee, Massachusetts. When he left Springfield, after only six months, the parishioners presented him with a gold watch valued at $275, an amount equivalent to almost $5,000 in today’s dollars. This gift was a measure of the esteem the parishioners had for the holy priest. However, Father Power’s constitution was always frail and in Chicopee he became seriously ill. He was moved to his brother’s home in Brookline Massachusetts, where he died at age 25, on December 8, 1849, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
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