Fr Patrick Kelly (1891-1945) – Martyr of the Faith
Fr Patrick Kelly was born in Tullamore, Co Offaly on 10 January 1891, and studied in St Finian’s, Mullingar and St Patrick’s College, Maynooth.
Ordained in Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath, on 29 June 1915 for Meath Diocese he became a curate in Dunboyne before joining the Columbans in 1921. initially he was assigned to promotion work and spiritual direction in Australia and New Zealand.
When the Society began to accept lay brothers in 1924, he was recalled to Ireland to direct them.
Archbishop Michael O’Doherty invited the Columbans to staff the parish of Malate, Manila in 1929. Paddy became the parish priest and the first Superior of the Columbans in the Philippines. Though he was tall and imposing looking, Filipinos found him friendly, soft spoken, popular, and indeed beloved. Malate was a busy place. He and his assistants, Frs Michael Cuddigan and Gary Cogan, had 9,000 Catholics crowding into four Masses every Sunday and 100 baptisms a month. The priests had to learn Spanish and Tagalog.
Japan attacked Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941 and occupied Manila on 2 January.
The first Sunday morning after the American civilians were interned in Santo Tomas University, Paddy showed up at the gate. He insisted on getting in. As pastor of Malate parish, he was pastor of American Catholics in Manila. The guard insisted on his staying out. Paddy got in. After that he was admitted freely every Sunday and holyday to hear confessions and celebrate Mass. His first Mass-server was a young Japanese soldier, a seminarian who had been drafted into the army.
He courageously challenged the Japanese to obey international laws with respect to internees. On Christmas Eve 1944, Frs Kelly, Lalor and Monaghan were taken by the Japanese Kempeitai to the military police headquarters at Fort Santiago, Manila and tortured. The soldiers later brought them back to the presbytery and released them. The priests never shared with the others the details of their torture.
On 10 February 1945, while the liberation of Manila by the American forces was in progress, Japanese troops again rounded up Frs Kelly, Henaghan, Monaghan and Fallon from Malate presbytery together with a group of parishioners and marched them off to the Syquia Apartments, a large building on M H Del Pilar St near Malate Church. They were never seen again.
Their bodies have never been found; they lie somewhere under the soil of Manila in a nameless grave.
Fr Neil Collins
Fr Patrick Kelly (1891-1945)
