Community Pays Tribute to Soldiers Home Chaplain, the Rev. Patrick Healy – Everett Independent
They came together as a congregation and a community for a Christian funeral service Monday to say goodbye to the Rev. Patrick Francis Healy, longtime chaplain at the Chelsea Soldiers’ Home.
Rev. Michael O’Hara officiated the funeral service at St. Michael’s Chapel for Rev. Healy, who died January 12, 2022 at the age of 100. Family and friends, as well as state and local officials, attended the observance, which was truly a celebration of the well-loved cleric’s incredible life story, beginning in Charlestown and through his highly decorated service (various campaign medals and three bronze stars) in the US Army as Kaplan spanned the globe.
Rev. Patrick Healy (right) listens as Eugene O’Flaherty reads a proclamation
Honoring the distinguished service of the Rev. Healy
to the Chelsea Soldiers’ Home, where he served as chaplain.
Eugene O’Flaherty, a former state official and chief adviser to former Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, rose to the occasion with a beautiful, touching eulogy for Rev. Patrick Healy. O’Flaherty has been a calming influence at an emotional time for the congregation mourning the loss of their spiritual leader.
“Today I am filled with sadness at his loss, but I also know, like all of you, that we will see him again and that fills me with happiness. Father taught us that,” O’Flaherty said at the beginning of his message.
O’Flaherty told the congregation about Rev. Healy’s humble beginnings at Saint Mary’s Elementary School in Charlestown, “where Father’s affinity for the faith was nurtured.” He highlighted the excellence of the Rev. Healy as a young athlete “who earned a tryout with the Boston Red Sox in 1939.”
O’Flaherty also highlighted Father Healy’s writings of the Finger of God books, quoting him in an interview before his 100th birthday: “If you let the finger of God guide you in life, you will be very happy.”
O’Flaherty commended Father Healy’s service to his country and how his noble contribution to his fellow American veterans has continued over the past two years of the pandemic that has hit the Soldiers’ Home community hard.
“His final mission in life was here at the home during the pandemic,” O’Flaherty said. “He took care of the troops like he had learned in Vietnam and other places around the world. In the midst of this threat of war, Father Healy had said, ‘I was in the hands of the Lord,’ and so he has been here with us in this church for the last two years during the pandemic.”
The sentimental reminiscence was shared of how Father Healy’s previous experiences at St. Timothy’s Church in Miami – where he oversaw the construction of the church building – formed the basis for him to carry out the window repairs, new staircase and other renovations at St. Michael’s Chapel supervised on the Soldiers’ Home campus. “Father had been there [in Miami] and did that,” said O’Flaherty.
O’Flaherty’s account of the story of how the congregation had gently coaxed Father Healy out of his retirement also drew a positive, joyful response — during a dinner at the Kernwood, where O’Flahery and others asked him to serve as chaplain to the Chelsea Soldiers’ Home.
“He brought us his teachings and his works, all these accumulated years of knowledge, wisdom and discipline in the works of Christ, and we learned from that great priest what our path to salvation requires,” O’Flaherty said. “Father always reminded us that we do not know the time or the hour when God will call us and that we must be ready.”
On behalf of the community and the heroic veterans living at the Soldiers’ Home, O’Flaherty expressed his gratitude to Father Healy’s family: “Please know how much we loved him and how cared for him,” O’Flaherty said . “You have all been amazing in your devotion to father.”
Two impressive moments remained in a brilliantly executed service for Rev. Patrick Healy. As the large crowd left the church, singer Robert Brooks continued his masterful singing to the end, a performance so impressive it prompted the remaining congregation to give Mr. Brooks a hearty applause.
And as Rev. Healy made his final journey across the Soldiers’ Home campus, loved ones, family and friends stood before St. Michael’s Chapel and proudly held up American flags to honor that favorite son of Charlestown, a great American chaplain, and spiritual leader who brought so much inspiration and words of wisdom to all who knew him during his 100 years of life.