IN MEMORY OF FATHER JOE MANTON, C.Ss.R., 
"THE NOVENA PRIEST"

Father Manton died on November 9th.

November 9th is a special date in our Redemptorist calendar: the birthday of our Congregation. It was on November 9,1732 that St. Alphonsus Liguori started our Redemptorist Congregation.

Father Joseph Manton was born in 1904 and died in 1998. So his life of ninety-four years spanned most of this century.

He came here to Boston in 1939. Then for the next fifty-nine years he preached the novena in honor of Our Mother of Perpetual Help.

The Redemptorists came to the United States in 1832. It was not till 1839 that they secured their first permanent foundation in Pittsburgh. The Superior of the Redemptorists at the time was Father Joseph Prost. And he made this remarkable statements have no doubt that the Redemptorists were called to America to spread devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary".

If God called the Redemptorists to America to spread devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, no Redemptorist has done more than Father Joseph Manton.

I don't need to tell you about Father Manton's preaching. So many of you have enjoyed listening to him for many years. You know how his sermons were vivid, colorful, and filled with images as bright as paintings.

There have been other famous preachers in our country over these years. But Father Manton was in a class of his own.

Besides his vivid language I think what made him so special was what I will call his "people appeal." His sermons touched our minds and our hearts. They resonated with our own feelings.

Some years ago there was a famous radio program called "The Catholic Hour". Many well known preachers spoke on "The Catholic Hour", like Bishop Fulton Sheen. But it's a matter of record that the program got more letters in response to Fr. Manton's talks than were received by any of the other speakers. Father Manton's talks had "people appeal".

There were years here at the Shrine when 15,000 people came every Wednesday, to fill the upper and lower Churches for eight services throughout the day. Buses from all over were lined up outside. And Father Manton preached at all those services. His sermons were piped into the lower Church.

Father Manton was well known beyond our Boston area. He was in constant demand. He spoke in many parishes in New England, and across the country as far as California, and even in Canada. He preached novenas, triduums; he spoke at Communion Breakfasts and other special occasions.

With his fine English style there was more. He published ten popular books like "Pennies from the Poor Box" and "Straws from the Crib". Even the titles bear his special stamp.

It may seem to us that Father Manton was here in Boston forever. But there was a Joseph Manton before Boston.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended school at our parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Brooklyn. Then he entered our Redemptorist seminary system and was ordained priest in 1929.

After ordination and his seminary years he was sent to teach in our minor seminary of St. Mary's in Pennsylvania. There, for three years, he taught English literature and Greek. Among his students in English class was a young man named Vincent Kelly.

Then Father Manton was sent to study a couple of years at Catholic University in Washington,DC.

After that he spent a few years at our Redemptorist Church of the Immaculate Conception in the Bronx as parish priest.

Then in 1939 he came to Boston with Ted Williams. But his career lasted for many years after Ted Williams retired.

You know the public Father Manton, the Father Manton of this Basilica and of this pulpit. But I'd like to take you behind the scenes, behind the pulpit.

He grew up as a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers. But it was not long after he came to Boston that he became one of the many long-suffering fans of the Boston Red Sox. He enjoyed walking to Fenway Park to root for the Red Sox.

When the doctors diagnosed his final illness, the Red Sox were doing quite well, heading for the post-season playoffs. I was hoping that before Father Manton died he would have the pleasure of seeing the Red Sox, at long last, winning the World Championship. But it was not to be.

Also behind the scenes, behind the pulpit, Fr. Manton enjoyed playing golf. The high point of his golfing years came when he was seventy-five years old, and shot a hole in one. It was a difficult shot, over a body of water. But at seventy-five Father Manton put the ball in the cup with one stroke.

A plaque was put up in the clubhouse of that golf course to commemorate his feat.

In his declining years when his eyesight began to fail badly, one of this disappointments was his inability to get out to the golf course.

Father Manton used to say in his later years: "God gave me ninety good years".

But the later years were difficult. And with his failing eyesight, one of his big difficulties was his inability to read. With his vast fund of knowledge you know he was a great reader. So it was a big cross for him when he could no longer read.

He made up for this to some extent by listening to books on tape, and tapes on a variety of subjects, religious and secular.

Father Manton continued to say Mass daily in our house Chapel down to his very last days. Though his vision was poor, he knew the main parts of the Mass by heart.

And we would see him regularly walking up and down the corridors of our house praying his rosary.

And in good weather people could see him walking back and forth in front of our Church and rectory with the rosary in his hand.

His devotion to Mary was not limited to Wednesdays and to this pulpit. Devotion to Mary was a great part of his life.

His influence and the influence of our Novena devotions here in Boston reached to the other side of the world.

In this year of 1998 our huge Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help in Baclaran in Manila in the Philippines celebrated its Fiftieth Anniversary. Every Wednesday one hundred thousand people come to our Novena devotions in Baclaran, while at the same time all the churches in the Philippines, even the most remote chapels, have Novena devotions every Wednesday.

And it all started this way. In 1946 some American Gl's from Boston were stationed in the southern Philippines. They asked a Redemptorist to have Novena devotions in honor of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, the way they remembered them here in this Church with Father Manton. A visiting Redemptorist from the north took notice and in 1948 brought the Novena to Baclaran in Manila to a small chapel holding only seventy people. Well that grew to the huge Shrine with one hundred thousand people every Wednesday. But it all started here in this Church with Father Manton.

There's a saying that no one is irreplaceable. I've never agreed with that idea. Some people are irreplaceable. Father Manton is irreplaceable. He was one of a kind; in a class of his own.

Sure, we will continue conducting the Novena devotions. You will continue to take part in our Novena devotions to Our Mother of Perpetual Help. But it will never be the same again without Father Manton.

I want to add this thought. We loved Father Manton. We will never forget him. But please let's keep him in our prayers.

After a priest's funeral when we'd be filing back to the sacristy, I've often said to whatever priest I was walking with, "When I die tell the preacher not to put me in heaven, or the people won't bother to pray for me if I'm in Purgatory."

I want to say something like that today. We don't know God's judgments, and if the soul of Father Manton still needs our prayers, let us continue those prayers for him.

Saint Peter is often pictured at the pearly gates of heaven. But when Father Manton reaches those pearly gates, Saint Peter won't be first in line. Someone else will say "Excuse me", and get first in line to welcome Father Manton, and it will be Our Blessed Mother Mary whom Father Manton loved so dearly, who spent a lifetime making her known and loved.

Rev. Joseph 0. Adamec, C.Ss.R.

November 13,1998

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