March 23, 1937
Father Maurice Reidy
Father Maurice Reidy, brother of Father Daniel Reidy who was also ordained for the Diocese of Wichita, was born on February 12, 1880 in Newtown, County Cork, Ireland. He attended St. Patrick Seminary in Carlow, Ireland where he was ordained for the Diocese of Wichita by Bishop Patrick Foley on June 14, 1903. As an assistant he served at the Pro-Cathedral for one year. In 1904 he became pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish, Mineral, and remained there for nine years. His second assignment was to St. Rose of Lima Parish, Great Bend, where he built a new church. His third and final assignment as pastor was to Sacred Heart Parish, Arkansas City, where he died on March 23, 1937 of “a stroke of apoplexy” at the age of 57. Bishop Schwertner celebrated his Pontifical Requiem Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Arkansas City. Father (later Msgr.) P.J. O’Leary preached the sermon and said, “In his manhood, obeying His Divine Master’s call, he left his own land and came to this diocese, where he gave himself unselfishly to his people. Kindness of heart and caring toward all were his outstanding qualities. He was a lover of freedom from his earliest boyhood in Old Erin; he gloried in the freedom of the United States and was proud of his American citizenship.” (The Catholic Advance, Apr. 3, 1937) Father Reidy was buried in Resurrection Cemetery, Great Bend, KS.