John P. Brennan (priest)

[1] He was ordained a priest at Grand Séminaire de Montréal in 1856[1] and graduated from the College of the Holy Cross on July 6, 1859.

[1] He spent the last four years of his life at his mother's house on Washington Street in Taunton, bedridden with chronic rheumatism, where he died on August 18, 1889.

[4] During his pastorate in Dedham, the Sisters of Charity founded St. Mary's School and Asylum at what was formerly the Norfolk House.

[5][7] At the news of the sale, the Dedham Gazette wrote in an editorial: Whatever prejudices may naturally exist against the establishment of a Roman Catholic School in so central a location, the community cannot but feel that the transformation of a building recently used only for the indiscriminate sale of liquors into an institution founded for 'promoting virtue, learning and piety in the town of Dedham' is an object worthy only of the most exalted motives, and in this view should be accepted as a public blessing.

[15] It was a "somewhat pleasant surprise" when it was announced on January 14, 1877, that Brennan would be leaving St. Mary's and St. Catherine's and that the parish would be turned over to his curate, Dennis J.