Monsignor Edward Joseph Flanagan (13 July 1886 – 15 May 1948) was an Irish-born priest of the Catholic Church in the United States who served for decades in Nebraska.

In the post-World War II era, Flanagan was invited by General Douglas MacArthur to visit Japan and Korea, and later Austria and Germany, to give him advice about improving conditions for children in the occupied countries.

He attended Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where in 1906 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree.

He returned home to Omaha due to his health in the winter of 1908 and took an accounting job at Cudahy Packing Company.

Flanagan returned to Europe the following autumn, entering the Royal Imperial Leopold Francis University in Innsbruck, Austria, where he was ordained a priest in 1912.

He was then transferred to St. Patrick's Church in Omaha and was present during the Tornado outbreak sequence of March 1913 responding to the dead and injured.

Bishop Jeremiah James Harty of the Diocese of Omaha had misgivings, but endorsed Flanagan's experiment in housing and education.

Because the downtown facilities were inadequate, Flanagan established Boys Town, ten miles west of Omaha, in 1921.

Under Flanagan's direction, Boys Town grew to be a large community with its own boy-mayor, schools, chapel, post office, cottages, gymnasium, and other facilities.

At a 17 March 2012 prayer service at Boys Town's Immaculate Conception Church, he was given the title, "Servant of God".