Miguel A Sepulveda, OFM

1955 – 1998

Fr. Miguel Seplveda, OFM, was born on July 26, 1955, in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. He went to the Universidad of Puerto Rico and received a philosophy degree from Seminario Salesiano, Guatemala, in 1976. He also earned his bachelor’s degree in modern language from St. Peter’s College, Jersey City, N.J., and studied sign language at Camden College.

He was received into the Province’s novitiate at St. Francis Retreat House, Brookline, Mass., in 1980 and professed temporary vows the following year. Fr. Miquel made his profession of solemn vows in 1985 and was ordained a priest later that year.

Fr. Miguel spent his pre-novitiate in the Bronx where he worked with children and then taught Spanish and French in a high school in Buffalo, N.Y. While in the novitiate, he worked with the parishioners of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Jamaica Plain, Mass. He served at the Capilla Latina in Washington, a program that teaches English to Hispanic refugees.

In 1985, he was assigned as parochial vicar to Holy Cross Parish in the Bronx, and in 1989 to St. Francis Church in New York City as an associate. During his six years at St. Francis, Fr. Miguel’s multiple sclerosis, which had first appeared in 1989, worsened.

He returned to his family in Puerto Rico in 1995, where he remained until his death on Nov. 1, 1998, in Yabucoa. Fr. Miguel was 43 years old, a professed friar for 17 years
and a priest for 13 years.