BURNS, JOSEPH MURDOCH (1892-1946)

BURNS, JOSEPH MURDOCH, Catholic parish priest, Boiestown, 1921-25; Renous, 1925-34; and Chatham, 1934-46; b. Blackville, 20 Mar 1892, s/o Peter Edward Burns and Catherine McCarthy; ordained 1916; d. Chatham, 16 May 1946.

J. Murdoch Burns was educated at St Dunstan's University and trained for the priesthood at Holy Heart Seminary in Halifax. He was ordained at St Raphael's Church, Blackville, and all of his appointments as a priest were in Miramichi parishes. He was a curate at Renous for a year and at Neguac for three years. In 1921 he was appointed parish priest at Boiestown, as successor to Father J. L. Chiasson, whose posting there had been brief. In 1925 he was transferred to Renous, as successor to Father Edward A. Murdoch. He was stationed there until he succeeded Father Michael A. O'Keeffe as rector of St Michael's Cathedral in Chatham in 1934.

When Burns died in 1946, at age fifty-four, he was survived by three brothers in the United States and one sister, Sister Theresa Carmel, of the Sisters of Charity of Halifax.