RINGWOOD, N.J. — Bronx native Brian Linehan, OFM, died April 19 at Holy Name Friary. The 87-year-old was one of six friars commemorating 50 years of profession in 2011. He was a priest for 44 years.
A Wake Service will be held at 6 p.m. on April 25 in the Cortona Chapel of Holy Name Friary. The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated by Provincial Minister John O’Connor, OFM, at 11 a.m. April 26 at St. Anthony Church, 65 Bartholdi Avenue, Butler N.J. Interment will follow at God’s Acre Cemetery in Ringwood.
Early Years
Brian was born July 31, 1923, in Bronx, N.Y., to Jeremiah and Margaret Linehan. In 1941, he graduated from Stuyvesant High School, New York City, and served in the Army Air Corps during World War II and as a Port Authority policeman before joining the Franciscans.
He was received into the Order of Friars Minor at St. Raphael’s Novitiate, Lafayette, N.J., in 1960 and professed first vows there the following year. Brian then studied philosophy at St. Francis College, Rye Beach, N.H., receiving a B.A. in 1963 from St. Bonaventure College, Allegany, N.Y. He went on to study theology at Holy Name College in Washington, D.C.
Brian professed final vows in the chapel of Christ the King Seminary, Allegany, in 1964. In 1967, he was ordained a priest at Mount St. Sepulchre, the Franciscan Monastery in Washington.
Ministry
Following ordination, Brian completed a year of studies at the Radio Institute in New York City. He was then assigned parochial vicar for six years at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Midtown Manhattan, followed by two years at St. Stephen of Hungary Church on the Upper East Side.
In 1976, he joined the team ministry at St. Joseph Church in East Rutherford, N.J.
Returning from a yearlong sabbatical in 1983, Brian was assigned parochial vicar at Annunciation Parish in Paramus, N.J., before returning to St. Joseph’s in East Rutherford for four years in the same role. From 1988 to 1989, he served as treasurer at Holy Name College.
Brian then served at Our Lady of the Holy Angels in Little Falls, N.J., and St. Leo in Elmwood Park, N.J., before once again returning to East Rutherford. In September 2001, he became senior associate friar at St. Joseph Parish before retiring in February 2005 to Holy Name Friary in Ringwood due to health problems.
Brian is survived by his brother, Bartholomew Linehan, to whom condolences may be sent at 1 Fr. Finian Sullivan Drive, Apt. 3G, Yonkers NY 10703. His brothers John and Joseph and sister, Sr. Mary Linehan, SC, predeceased him.
Memorial contributions can be made to: The Franciscans — St. Anthony’s Guild, 4 Jersey Street, East Rutherford NJ 07073-1012.