A very happy birthday to Paulist Fr. John Lynch! He turns 101 years old today!

Fr. Lynch is only the second Paulist in history to reach the age of 101.

Fr. Lynch has been part of the Paulist community for 83 years. He studied for two years at our minor seminary in Baltimore, MD, before entering our novitiate in 1944.

He made his First Promises in 1945, his Final Promises in 1948, and was ordained a priest on May 1, 1951.

He holds a doctoral degree in philosophy from the University of Toronto.

In the 1960s, he began to teach medieval history at the Catholic University of America’s School of Arts and Sciences. This role soon expanded to a joint appointment with the university’s School of Canon Law. After becoming a full professor, he served as chair of the canon law department from 1974 to 1983 and chair of the history department from 1983 to 1986. Fr. Lynch also was vice provost for graduate studies at CUA for most of the 1990s.

After retiring from CUA in 2000, Fr. Lynch became the Paulist archivist. He served in this role through 2016 when he moved to the Sacred Heart Home in Hyattsville, MD.