Bernard J. Quinn
Bernard Quinn was born in Newark, New Jersey, to Irish immigrant parents, in 1888. He became a priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn. After serving as a chaplain in France during the First World War, he received permission to start an apostolate to Black Catholics, founding St. Peter Claver Church.
With the growing state of homelessness among Black children in the late 1920’s, Fr. Quinn bought land in the Long Island town of Wading River in order to build an orphanage. He faced fierce opposition from locals and the Ku Klux Klan. Twice, his orphanage was burned down. His life was in danger but he was “ready to shed the last drop of his life’s blood for the least” among his people.
According to a
website for the cause of canonization, Fr. Quinn's whole life was "oriented towards the people, serving their spiritual and human needs in the vicissitudes of their daily lives. ... Father’s own heart, like the heart of Christ, flowed over with endless outpouring of God’s love for those who were down-and-out, the hapless sinner and [those] who needed his services."
He died in 1940, at the age of 52.
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