Gala will honor Servant of God Bernard Quinn, priest who served Brooklyn African Americans

A fundraising gala this fall will support the cause of canonization for Servant of God Bernard J. Quinn, an Irish-American Catholic priest known for his work with African Americans in Brooklyn and beyond.

The event will take place Friday, Oct. 3, at Russo’s on the Bay in Queens, organized by the sainthood guild that has advocated for Quinn’s legacy since 2009.

“Recognizing the injustices Blacks were suffering in the United States, [he] spent his life championing racial equality,” wrote Miche Guerrier, a local advocate, in an announcement.

Born in 1888 to Irish immigrants in Newark, New Jersey, Quinn entered seminary out of high school and was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Brooklyn at just 24 years old. Though inspired to serve the neglected local Black community, he was rebuffed by his bishop before going overseas to serve as a chaplain in World War I, where he witnessed further racism. 

Upon his return to the U.S., Quinn dedicated his life to the Black apostolate. In his largely segregated diocese, he repeatedly petitioned his bishop before establishing, in 1922, its first Black Catholic parish, St. Peter Claver Catholic Church. He spearheaded the effort in collaboration with laypeople who had previously attempted the same during the war.

The parish expanded quickly under Quinn’s leadership, adding a clinic, credit union, and parish school in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, while also serving as a refuge for the city’s Black youth. St. Peter Claver’s historic children’s choir included future stars like Lena Horne, Pearl Bailey, and Savannah Churchill.

Quinn’s vocational work also helped produce one of the nation’s first Black priests, Divine Word Father Francis Wade, and the diocese’s first Black priest, Msgr William J. Rodgers. The famed Black ventriloquist John W. Cooper was among the parish’s many adult members and entertainers in Quinn’s fundraising troupes.

Quinn’s devotion to the newly canonized St. Thérèse of Lisieux permeated his work, including a regular novena to her at St. Peter Claver, drawing thousands of various races to participate in prayer. Funds raised from the widespread attraction to the parish helped Quinn establish the Little Flower House of Providence in 1929, an orphanage for Black children. Burned to the ground twice by the Ku Klux Klan, it continues to operate today as Little Flower Children and Family Services. 

The St. Peter Claver Institute in Brooklyn was established by Quinn in 1931 to house a school, convent, and recreation center, and he founded the diocese’s second Black parish, St. Benedict the Moor in Jamaica, Queens, the next year. His ventures often had the support of his close friend, the Philadelphia heiress and nun St. Katharine Drexel.

An outspoken advocate on social issues, Quinn drew the ire of many White Catholics in New York, including other members of the clergy. He maintained support from the diocese, however, and was named by his bishop as a monsignor—a title he eschewed throughout his later life. 

Quinn continued his work until health challenges caused his retreat from ministry in 1940, when he died from cancer at the age of 52. He is buried at the Cemetery of the Holy Rood in Westbury alongside his family.

Immediately thereafter, Quinn began to receive devotion as a possible saint, and a chapel at the Little Flower orphanage was named in his honor in 1950. The centennial of his birth was celebrated in 1988, part of a push from then-pastor of St. Peter Claver, Msgr Paul Jervis, for a sainthood cause. His book, “Quintessential Priest: The Life of Father Bernard J. Quinn,” was published in 2005, and the cause was opened by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio in 2008. 

An official biography was submitted to the Vatican in 2019, and its approval would clear the way for the pope to declare Quinn “Venerable”—the last step before beatification. Most recently, the diocese released in 2023 a short documentary on his life.

This fall’s gala will raise funds for Quinn's sainthood process, which is known to cost up to a million dollars to complete if a cause reaches the final stages of investigation.

Tickets for the gala, which includes a four-course meal and drinks, are $225 for adults and $135 for children up to 18 years of age. Payment plans are available with a nonrefundable commitment fee, and questions can be directed to St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church at (718) 574-5772 or Dr. Marina Brown at (347) 965-6325.

Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.

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