as 78. Fr. Flanigan died at Phelps Memorial Hospital in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., on June 30. His funeral and burial were held on July 2 at Maryknoll, N.Y., where he was ordained. Meanwhile, memorial masses were held on July 5 in Holy Cross Church in Changhua, and in St. Patrick‘s Church in Fengyuan. Fr. Flanigan had served in both places located in central Taiwan.
Edward James Flanigan was born in Philadelphia on June 25, 1929 to Edward and Regina Murphy Flanigan. He received his primary and secondary education in Philadelphia. He received a B.A. degree in philosophy in 1951 and a Master‘s degree in religious education in 1956. He was ordained in Maryknoll on June 9, 1956.
Fr. Flanigan came to Taiwan shortly after he was ordained. He began his mission by serving at Chu Shan, where he built a village church named St. Anne‘s in the Fields. In 1962, he was assigned as pastor of St. Patrick‘s Mission of Fengyuan, Taichung County, where he worked for the next 12 years. During that time he built a covenant for the native Taiwanese sisters, established a county-wide nutrition program for underprivileged children, formed two councils of the Legion of Mary and conducted many parish outreach groups.
In 1977, Fr. Flanigan helped complete a common usage English-Amoy Chinese dictionary. In the 1980s, he was involved in family ministry at Maryknoll‘s Friendship House in Taipei. In 1986, he became pastor of Holy Cross mission in Changhua City. Due to a stroke suffered at the mission there, Fr. Flanigan was forced to return to the States.
In 1990, he was able to return to Taiwan, where he served as Director of the Maryknoll Chinese Language School in Taichung. Due to medical reasons, he returned to the U.S. in 2005 and took up residence at St. Teresa‘s.
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