Fr. Ciaran Fergus, OP

Father Ciarán Fergus, O.P. died at Mohun Health Care Center at the age of 91 on Saturday, September 2, 2023 after a period of declining health. 

Thomas James Fergus was born on September 14, 1931 in Brooklyn, NY, the son of Michael Gilbert and Margaret Josephine Fergus. His father was a police officer and a native of C. Mayo, Ireland. His mother, a registered nurse, died when he was just over two years old. He was baptized at the Church of the Holy Child Jesus in Richmond Hill, NY on September 27, 1931, and attended Holy Child Jesus School. He attended St. Francis Preparatory School in Brooklyn, NY from 1945-49 and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music from 1949-50. After a period of working in a bank, he joined the U.S. Army in 1952 and served as a corporal in the Orleans (France) Area Command during the Korean War. Being honorably discharged in 1953, he returned to Brooklyn to enroll in St. Francis College, where he earned his BBA in Accounting in 1957.

Father Fergus entered the Dominican novitiate in 1958 at St. Joseph’s Priory in Somerset, OH, where he received the religious name Kieran (later styled as Ciarán). He was simply professed on August 16, 1959,and studied Philosophy at St. Stephen’s Priory in Dover, MA from 1959-62, where he earned his M.A., and went on to the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC, to study Theology from 1962-66, earning his S.T.B. and S.T.L. He made his solemn profession on August 16, 1962, and was ordained to the priesthood at St. Dominic’s Church in Washington, DC on June 10, 1965 by Bishop William Joseph McDonald, Auxiliary Bishop of Washington.

After a year of pastoral training at St. Catherine of Siena and St. Vincent Ferrer parishes in New York City, Father Fergus embarked on a career in campus ministry, first at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla from 1966-7, then at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI from 1967-68 and then at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA, from 1968-73. From 1973 to 1989, he was Catholic chaplain to Frostburg State University in Frostburg, MD.

Father Fergus considered himself a “professional campus minister,” with a comprehensive view of his responsibilities. At Frostburg State, he performed regularly in the University Wind Ensemble. As he wrote, “the campus minister must be present to, known by, and easily available to the members of the university community on their own ground.” He initiated pro-life activities on campus and directed Pre-Cana and family life programs for students preparing for marriage.

In 1989, Father Fergus was assigned for campus ministry and teaching to Providence College, where he remained until 1997, when he was assigned to Sacred Heart Priory in Jersey City, NJ to become Director of Catholic Campus Ministry at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. In 2001, diocesan priests replaced Dominicans at Rutgers and Fr. Fergus went on to serve as Associate Campus Minister at Fairleigh Dickinson and Drew Universities in the Diocese of Paterson. In 2002, he became chaplain to the nuns of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in Summit, NJ. During this time, he also taught on the faculty of Seton Hall University and Caldwell University. In 2011, he left the monastery in Summit, and lived at St. Joseph rectory in West Orange, NJ.

In 2017, Fr. Fergus was assigned to St. Dominic’s Priory in Youngstown, OH to assist with parochial ministries. In 2021, he began residence at Mohun Healthcare Center in Columbus, OH.

Fr. Ciarán Fergus is survived by his many cousins, including, Christopher Georgiou, Alex Georgiou, Maureen Baxter, Noreen Rice and her husband Pat, James Fergus and his wife Mary, Michael Fergus, Ann Fergus, Pat Kennedy, Kevin Fergus and his wife Constance, Mairead Costello, and many others.

After time for viewing at Mohun Health Care Center, his body will be received at St. Patrick Church in Columbus, Ohio on Tuesday, September 12 at 5:00pm.  The Office of the Dead will be celebrated that evening, and the brethren will vigil over his body through the night.  A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated for him Wednesday, September 13 at 10:00am, with the prior of St. Patrick, Very Rev. Stephen Dominic Hayes, O.P., as celebrant and Rev. Frassati Davis, O.P. as homilist.  His remains will then be transported for burial at the Dominican section of St. Gabriel Cemetery in Marlboro, New Jersey on Saturday, September 16 at 11:00am. 

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