This is primarily of interest to those of you in the Boston area, but Father Edward McDonough, CSSR, (Redemptorist), known as “the healing priest,” has died. He had served at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston, also known as Mission Church.
There will be a wake on Friday at the basilica from 2pm to 8pm followed by a prayer service and the funeral will be on Saturday at 10am.
Fr. McDonough had been known far and wide for the gifts granted to him through which the Holy Spirit used him to effect miraculous spiritual and physical healings.
The second and third photos on this page are from one of Fr. McDonough’s Masses at my parish, Immaculate Conception Church in Salem, Mass., in recent years.
Father was no faith-healing huckster. He was always very clear with people that the more important healing was the healing of your relationship with God broken through sin and that no one should count on a miraculous physical healing. Sometimes it is God’s will that you should bear that cross. He always saw the Eucharist and the Sacrament of the Sick as working hand in hand as well.
Father McDonough was 86 years old.
Fr. McDonough is, not was, one of the most humble, truly holy men we could encounter in the priestly ministry. He was the vehicle used by the Lord to heal many who came to him for intercession over many decades – and will continue to be. Today we had him with us as we held a peaceful, prayerful vigil at MetroWest Hospital in Framingham, protesting the abortions they perform there. He was happy that we asked God to have him join us, as his prolife commitment was a model for so many in the movement. Keep him close to us, Lord! Yes, we shall overcome and remove this terrible blight on our Massachusetts landscape by continuing to ask his intercession at the throne of the Almighty.
Father was a saintly humble man, and a regular guy. My buddy Charlie who is a regular at the Mission Church told me two anecdotes.
His advice to somebody seeking spiritual advice was as simple and universal as it was profound: Pray and go to church.
When he sensed Charlie beating around the bush asking Fr. McDonough how this whole miraculous healing worked, Father said, “You want to know how it works? God brings them here and God heals them. I just show up.”
Many folks may not know that the Mission Church has a long history of miraculous healings. The large number of crutches over by the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, beginning in the 1800’s, is a reminder. Fr. McD was a link in that chain.
Blessed repose, and eternal memory!
Fr. Ed McDonough, CSSR was truly an inspiration to me as I was discerning my vocation to the Priesthood in the late 70’s while completing my udergraduate degree at Boston Colege and was one of the reason I joined the Redemptorists in 1995 as an ordained priest. While in college, I attended one of his healing services at Mission Church with one of my readers, as I am visually impaired. His love for our Lord in the Eucharist and our Blessed Mother of Perpetual Help will always be a source of strenght and inspiration for all of us who had the pleasure of knowing and living with this womderful priest who served us all as an exemplary Good Shepherd which was the title of a song that he composed. Let us continue to pray and seek his intercession he now resides with Our Lord Jess Christ, Our “Good Shepherd.” I can still hear him reminding us always to: “Praise The Lord”
PAX!!!
I am blessed to know that Fr. Edward McDonough was not only a “famous healing priest” but he was my friend. I kept in touch with him soon after his health began to change over a year ago. I would sit with him and let him know that God and I love him.
The year prior Father sat with me during my hour of need for months we met 4-5 nights a week praying the divine chaplet.
My beloved passed away sudden and my whole world fell apart.
Father prayed for me. We prayed together and I pray for him by reciting the divine chaplet everday.
My heart aches for my beloved and for Fr. McDonough
I will always feel blessed that the Holy Spirit led our family to Father McDonough in the late 70s.
I was also blessed to take my husband to one of Father McDonough’s healing masses so that my husband too could be touched by the Spirit. A humble and inspiring person.