Capuchin-Franciscan Brother Joseph McGlynn, 81, celebrated cook for St. Fidelis Friary and the Capuchin Spiritual Life Center of Victoria, Kansas for the past 17 years, died rather unexpectedly on Thursday, November 29, 2024 at the HaysMed in Hays, Kansas.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 3, 1943, Dennis Gerald McGlynn was the son of John P. and Alice Sheila (McKendry) McGlynn. At the age of 16, having attended Ascension Catholic Grade School for eight years and Northeast Catholic High School for two years, he adopted the religious name Joseph and began a year’s postulancy with the friars of the Capuchin Province of Pennsylvania at the Capuchin Brothers Training Center at SS, Peter and Paul’s Friary in Cumberland, Maryland.
The following year, he made his novitiate at St. Conrad Friary in Annapolis, Maryland, and made first profession as a Capuchin lay brother on August 22, 1961.
Br. Joseph engaged in two more years of religious formation and trade schooling in Cumberland and another at St. Fidelis Friary in Herman, Pennsylvania., and then made a lifelong commitment as a Capuchin brother on August 22, 1964.
Joseph’s first 12 years as a solemnly professed friar were spent in domestic service to friary communities in Annapolis and Victoria, Kansas, with specific assignments as tailor for eight years and cook for six.
In 1977, the Pennsylvania province was divided into two new provinces at the Indiana-Illinois border, and the western half (Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado) was named the Province of Mid-America under the patronage of St. Conrad of Parzham; and Br. Joseph opted to join it.
In this new province, he continued pursuing the traditional domestic responsibilities of lay brothers. A 16-page illustrated typescript he assembled in these years, entitled “Measuring, Cutting, and Sewing a Capuchin Habit” was dedicated to Br. Thomas Thomasunas, “my mentor in tailoring and in Capuchin life.”
But Joseph also became a pioneer in new callings for lay brothers! He was Mid-America’s first lay friar to serve (for five years) as a fraternity vicar, and then as the first to serve (for 10 years) as a guardian. Both appointments required special indults from the Holy See.
During these years, Joseph also became involved in the earliest formation efforts of the Province. He directed the pre-postulancy program 1979-86, and then the postulancy program 1986-95.
He was also a member of the chapter steering committees in 1986, 1998 and 2001, and in 1986 became the first lay member of the provincial council, serving nine years as such. In 1992, the North American Capuchin Conference made him one of its delegates to the first ever International Capuchin Assembly addressing Capuchin identity and culture, which was held in Lublin, Poland.
Later he was kitchen manager and studied alcohol and drug counseling at Dismas House in St. Louis; was Catholic campus minister at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas; and spiritually assisted Secular Franciscan fraternities in Overland Park, Kansas, and Victoria.
Brother returned in 2007 to Victoria, and as the late Fr. Gilmary Tallman described it, to “his den, his nest, his grazing ground, his realm in the kitchen,” eventually having served his brothers’ culinary pleasures well over 39 years of his 69 years with them. He was a great cook, one brother stressed, great variety and willing to try new ideas.
In the kitchen, Joseph also held court, listening and asking question. “Some people are problem solvers,” Gilmary said. “He is a problem hearer. Some people give advice, he gives attention.”
Fr. Earl Befort added, “Joe was always kind and concerned about all the brothers. After Don Debes had his stroke, Joe took great care of him. Every day when we said office, Joe would sit with him and show him where and how to find the right prayers and do so most patiently. Joe will be deeply missed.”
Joseph was predeceased by his parents, his brothers John, Charles, Msgr. Daniel, and Robert, and his sister Sheila, and is survived by his brother James, presently in hospice, sister Eileen McGarrity of Jenkenstown, PA, and 19 nephews and nieces and their 43 children and grandchildren.
Mass of Christian Burial will be at 10:00 am on Thursday, December 5, 2024 at the Basilica of St. Fidelis in Victoria with Fr. James Moster, OFMCap. and Fr. Curtis Carlson, OFMCap. officiating. Burial will follow in the Friars’ Plot in St. Fidelis Cemetery. Visitation will be from 6:00 pm until 8:00 on Wednesday, and from 9:00 am until service time on Thursday, all at the Basilica. A vigil service and rosary will at 7:00 pm on Wednesday at the Basilica. Memorials are suggested to the Capuchin Province of Mid-America, Inc. Services are in the care of Hays Memorial Chapel Funeral Home and memories and condolences of Br. Joseph may be left for his Capuchin brothers and his family at www.haysmemorial.com