Saint Patrick Parish Bids Farewell to Priest, Celebrates Two First Communions

STONEHAM -- October 5, 2025, Saint Patrick Parish in Stoneham marked the departure of a priest known as Father Patrick at a Sunday Mass on October 5, also celebrating first Holy Communion for two parish school sisters, Alyssa and Ariana. Father Patrick, who described filling two pages of journal notes with blessings from his roughly 18-month assignment, thanked pastor Father Barnes for leadership and mentorship and said he is departing for the Amesbury and Salisbury area near the New Hampshire border. His homily drew on a reported 19th-century Carthusian story of an incorrupt monk whose abbot ordered the grave closed and sealed with the instruction to "close the grave, dig next to it, and don't tell anybody about it," arguing that sainthood and miraculous works of God should be understood as normative for all baptized Christians rather than exceptional. The Mass was followed by a parish hall reception and a 3 p.m. blessing of pets at the parish grotto marking the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi.