OBITUARY NOTICE:
Rev. Daniel O’Shea, SA – Franciscan Friar of the Atonement
(February 21, 1937 – October 31, 2021)
(November 3, 2021 – Graymoor, Garrison, NY.) Father Daniel O’Shea, SA a Franciscan Friar of the Atonement, passed from this life on Sunday, October 31, 2021. A wake service will be held on Sunday, November 7 at 7 p.m. in St. Anthony Chapel at St. Paul Friary, Graymoor, Garrison, NY. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Monday, November 8 at 11 a.m., also in St. Anthony Chapel. Interment to follow in the Friars’ cemetery.
Fr. O’Shea was born on February 21, 1937 in Brooklyn, NY. He attended elementary school in Brooklyn and high school at St. John’s Atonement Seminary in Montour Falls, NY, from which he graduated in 1955. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from St. Pius X College in 1960 and a Master’s from Catholic University in Washington, DC in 1964.
Fr. O’Shea joined the Friars of the Atonement in 1951 and received the habit in 1957. He made his first profession in 1958 and professed final vows in 1961. He was ordained in 1964 at the Immaculate Conception Shrine in Washington, DC by Bishop Philip Hannan.
After his ordination in 1964, Fr. O’Shea served as Vice Rector and Prefect at St. John’s Atonement Seminary in Montour Falls, NY until 1969. He was assigned to Rome in 1969 to serve in pastoral ministry at the Friars’ Convento Sant’Onofrio while also working as Library Director for the Centro Pro Unione. He was appointed Procurator General to the Holy See in 1970. He returned to Graymoor in 1977 to serve on the Friars’ General Council until 1981. From 1981 to 1989, Fr. O’Shea was Associate Pastor and then Pastor of Christ the Redeemer Parish in Sterling, VA. In 1990, he moved to Brockton, MA to serve in pastoral ministry at the Chapel of Our Savior and remained in that assignment until 1995. Fr. O’Shea was Pastor of Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Yonkers, NY from 1996 – 2000 before returning to Rome in 2000 to again serve as Procurator General to the Holy See and Guardian of the Convento Sant’Onofrio. During this time, he was re-elected to the Friars’ leadership council, serving two terms as Vicar General from 1996 to 2004. In 2009, Fr. O’Shea returned to ministry at the Chapel of Our Savior in Brockton where he remained until 2011.
Fr. O’Shea retired from full-time ministry in 2011 and returned to residence at St. Paul Friary, Graymoor. At the time of his death, Fr. O’Shea was a resident of Cabrini of Westchester Nursing Home in Dobbs Ferry, NY.
Fr. O’Shea was the son of the late Timothy O’Shea of County Kerr, Ireland and Catherine (Looney) O’Shea of New York City, NY. He was predeceased by his brothers, Timothy and Kevin O’Shea, and sisters, Catherine Enderson, Rosemary Dolan and Patricia O’Shea, known in religion as Sr. Mary Immaculate, RSM.