March 25, 2021
With great sadness, we announce that our brother, Paulist Fr. Kevin Aloysius Devine, entered eternal life today, the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, March 25, 2021.
He died of natural causes at the Veterans’ Home in Montrose, NY, aged 90.
Fr. Kevin had been a priest for nearly 65 years. For 31 of those years, he served with distinction as a U.S. Army chaplain.
He was born December 23, 1930, in New York City, a son of Edmund and Joan Twomey Devine. He had four brothers: Donal, Patrick, Finbar and Matthew.
In 1936, when he was six, his family moved to Inwood, then a largely Irish neighborhood at the northern tip of Manhattan. There, he “grew up Paulist” at Church of the Good Shepherd, the parish our missionary society founded and served in Inwood from 1911 to 2006.
In 1943, in his 9th grade year, he entered the Paulist juniorate (or “prep seminary”), St. Peter’s, in Baltimore, MD. As a high school student in the juniorate, he took classes at nearby St. Charles College with the Sulpician Fathers.
He entered our novitiate on August 29, 1949; made his First Promises to the Paulist community on September 8, 1950; and made his Final Promises on September 8, 1953.
He earned both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from our major seminary, St. Paul’s College in Washington, D.C., which was then a degree-granting institution.
Fr. Kevin was ordained a priest on May 3, 1956, one of 17 men ordained that day by Cardinal Francis Spellman at our mother church, the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in New York.
It was the largest ordination class thus far in our community’s history.
After his ordination, he served for two years at the Paulist Center in Boston before returning to his native Church of the Good Shepherd where he was an associate pastor through 1962.
In September, 1962, he began his 31-year career as a U.S. Army chaplain. His military service took him to points around the world, including Korea, Greenland, Alaska and Germany.
In 1969 and 1970, he served an 18-month tour of duty in Vietnam.
In 1970, Fr. Kevin created a slide presentation reflecting on his experience in Vietnam. In 2017, he translated that presentation into a video called “Peace.”
During his military service, Fr. Kevin was awarded the Silver Star and the Bronze Star and was promoted to the rank of colonel.
When he retired from the Army in 1993, Fr. Kevin returned to his native Inwood and became an associate pastor at Church of the Good Shepherd.
He was there on September 11, 2001, during the terrorist attack on the United States. He helped to lead the community’s response to the tragedy and served at the World Trade Center site.
For many years, Fr. Kevin also provided pastoral care for pilgrims in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
From 2006 to mid-2020, Fr. Kevin lived at the Paulist Motherhouse on West 59th Street in New York City, from which he assisted at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle.
Fr. Kevin was the last member of his immediate family.
He is survived by his Paulist brothers and numerous nieces and nephews.
A wake will be held for Fr. Kevin on Friday, April 9, 2021, from 4 to 8 p.m., at Riverdale Funeral Home in Inwood.
His funeral Mass will be celebrated on Saturday, April 10, 2021, at 10 a.m., at the Church of Good Shepherd in Inwood.
He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery on a date to be announced.
Our prayer for our brother, Kevin:
May the angels lead you into paradise,
may the martyrs come to welcome you,
and take you to the holy city,
the new and eternal Jerusalem.
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