O’Flynn, Rev John P

REV. JOHN P. O’FLYNN

October 4, 1968

Personal Info

  • Date of Birth: 31 May 1896
  • Place of Birth in Ireland: Firies Killarney
  • County: Kerry
  • Education: St Brendan’s, Killarney; St Patrick’s, Carlow and St Peter’s, Wexford
  • Date of Ordination: 15 June 1919
  • Place of Ordination: St Peter’s College Chapel, Wexford
  • Ordained by: Dr. William J. Codd, Bishop of Ferns, Ireland

Diocesan Assignments

  • Assistant – Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Wichita – 9/20/1920 to 5/4/1921
  • Assistant – St Joseph, Ellinwood – 5/6/1921 to 7/4/1923
  • Pastor – St Joseph, Baxter Springs; St Patrick, Galena and St Rose of Lima, Columbus – 7/4/1923 to 7/15/1936
  • Pastor – St Anastasia, Cherokee; Missions of St Barbara, Chicopee, St Cronin, Fleming and St Mary, McCracken – 7/16/1936 to 6/30/1940
  • Pastor – St Francis Xavier, Cherryvale – 10/24/1947 to 7/1/1967

Father O’Flynn reached his silver jubilee while he was pastor at St Mary’s Parish in McCracken, Kansas. However, there was not a celebration due to World War II conditions and the need for rations. Gasoline, meat, clothing and other durable goods were rationed on the home-front to make sure there was enough products for the fight on foreign soil.

Father O’Flynn closed St Francis Xavier School at the end of the 1965 school term. The Cherryvale school having been in operation since 1912 had enrolled only 39 children for the 1964-65 school year and the cost of operation was unsustainable.

Sixty alumni of St Peter’s College Seminary in Wexford, Ireland met for its bi-annual conference in the Wichita Broadview hotel. Bishop Leo C. Byrne gave the main address at the meeting and Father Thomas Briody, a priest of the Diocese of San Diego and national president of the alumni group presided. Irish priests who were ordained for the Wichita Diocese who were present at this conference included: Fathers Kevin Trayers (1952), William O’Malley (1952), John J. Curran (1954). Denis Trayers (1958) and John O’Flynn (1919) who served as the dean of the Wexford alumni for this diocese. Father Thomas McManus (1953) missed the conference as he was serving as a chaplain with the United States Air Force in England.

Prior to his death, Father O’Flynn served the parish of St Francis Xavier in Cherryvale for 20 years. His death followed a long illness.

  • Date of Death: 4 October 1968
  • Place of Death: Cherryvale, KS
  • Age of Death: 72
  • Funeral Celebrant: Most Rev. David M. Maloney, Bishop of the Wichita Diocese
  • Burial: St Francis Xavier Parish Cemetery, Cherryvale, Kansas

View full story with footnotes.