Fr. John B. Coss, FMSI, 94, died Monday, July 31, 2023. Born in Ottawa, Illinois on December 29th, 1928 the fifth child of Frank Coss and Anna Kennedy.
His early years were spent on the family farm in Seneca, Illinois. He attended a one room school house across the road from his home for the first four years of his education. The last four years of grade school were spent in St. Patrick’s School in Seneca-altar boy, basketball player. Seneca High School for 4 years, sports and farming when not in school. St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn. for his college education.
He Joined the Sons in the Fall of 1949 and came to Framingham with the founding Father Edward F. Garesche, S.J. on June 19th, 1952. First vows in the community on August 15th 1953 and then returned to St. John’s Seminary in Brighton where he was ordained on national TV. by Richard Cardinal Cushing on Jan 29th, 1956. Became Novice Master of the Sons until Oct. of 1962 when he was missioned to Lima, Peru. Became Pastor of Santa Magdalena Parish in October of 1964 and began an expansion of the educational system in the parish. When the Sons left the parish in 1984 there were 2,300 men, women and children receiving a good education.
He was in Peru from 1962 to 1969 when he returned to Framingham and was elected treasurer after our first chapter. In 1973 he returned to our Lima Mission where again he worked in the Parish and in our Youth Ministry Program. In December 1977 he joined two of the other members of the community in founding a mission in the jungle area of Venezuela, diocese of Los Teques, town of Mamporal district of Barlovento. He was there until year of favor in 1984 and that chapter that followed. MC from 1984 to 1994 and instrumental in starting the Manila Mission in 1984. He went with a Mission Group to work in the refugee camps in Honduras in 1986-87.
Fr. John has served as treasurer of the Sons for years and as of late has been the Mission Coordinator of the Sons working with the different Missionary Cooperative plans in the different New England Dioceses collecting funds for educational projects the Sons are supporting in Peru and the Philippines. He has also served as part time chaplain to Madonna Hall, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd and St. Patrick’s Manor, the Carmelite Sisters..
Family and friends will honor and remember Fr. John’s life by celebrating his Memorial Mass on Sunday morning, August 6th at the Sons of Mary Missionary Society, 567 Salem End Road, Framingham at 11 o’clock. All are invited to attend.
Arrangements by the McCarthy, McKinney & Lawler Funeral Home of Framingham. www.mccarthyfh.com
Chesmore Funeral Home