1839 – 1911 (September 30)
John Joseph Bowles was born in Limerick, Ireland on June 6, 1839. He entered the novitiate at Villanova, Pennsylvania in 1868, professed simple vows on January 8, 1869, and was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Wood on April 3, 1871. He was solemnly professed on January 22, 1872.
Father Bowles first served on the missions at Saint Denis in Ardmore, Pa., and then at Lansingburgh, Cambridge, Carthage, and Schaghticoke, all in New York. He was also missioned at Lawrence, Massachusetts, and at Chestnut Hill and Bryn Mawr in Pennsylvania.
He ministerd during his final years in the parishes of upstate New York in Hoosick Falls, Cambridge and Mechanicville. He was brought in ill health to Villanova from the Bronx in August, 1911, and died in the Villanova monastery on September 30, 1911 at the age of 72. Father Martin Geraghty, O.S.A., Prior Provincial, celebrated the Requiem Mass at which Father McShane, O.S.A. preached.
Father Bowles is buried in the Community Cemetery at Villanova.
