Born: Kilmatone, Ireland, February 22, 1825.
Took the habit: N.-D. de l’Osier, May 12, 1847.
Vows: N.-D. de l’Osier, May 13, 1848 (193).
Priestly ordination: Marseilles, April 1, 1850.
Died: San Antonio, Texas, February 30, 1893.
Richard Moloney was born in Kilmatone, Ireland, on February 22, 1825. His parents were William Moloney and Annabella Cunningham. Having finished his secondary studies in Youghal College, he entered the novitiate of Notre-Dame de l’Osier on May 12, 1847 and took vows on May 13, 1848. He had been approved for profession in the general council meeting of the preceding April 17. In the minutes of that meeting, the secretary general wrote that Brother Moloney was “filled with ardour, of decisive character, and endowed with more than ordinary talents, but that there was something lacking in his piety. The practice of religious virtues is rather painful for him and he will need to be well understood and well directed because he is hot-headed and of an impetuous character.”
He studied theology in the major seminary of Marseilles from 1848 until his ordination by Bishop de Mazenod on April 1, 1850. He was immediately assigned to America and ministered successively in Holy Angels, Buffalo, New York in 1850 and in 1851-1853, in Saint-Pierre-Apôtre, Montreal in 1850-1851, and in 1853, in L’Original, Ontario in 1854, in Burlington, Vermont in 1854-1857. His longest stay was in the parish of Saint Peter, Plattsburgh (1857-1858, 1860-1869). He was in Saint John the Baptist (1865-1877) and there he built a gothic church, one of the most beautiful in the diocese. He was much loved by the faithful and they petitioned that he be left there when he was sent to Holy Angels, Buffalo where he was in 1858-1860 and in 1877-1884.
In 1884 he received his obedience for Texas as first pastor of Saint Mary, San Antonio and then, in 1888 he was appointed pastor of Saint Peter Claver, ministering to the Black population of the city.
He died suddenly on February 13, 1893. A solemn funeral was held on February 15 and he was buried in the Oblate cemetery, San Antonio.
Yvon Beaudoin
and Gaston Carrière, o.m.i.
