By Florida Catholic staff - Florida Catholic
MIAMI | Parishioners of St. Thomas the Apostle will be celebrating a memorial Mass Saturday, May 16, at 1 p.m. for Father Philip J. Fabiano, a Capuchin Franciscan who ministered there for the past 14 years.
Father Philip Fabiano, a Capuchin Franciscan, had been a priest for the past 51 years, the last 14 of them at St. Thomas the Apostle in Miami. He died May 4 in his native New York at the age of 78.
Father Fabiano died May 4 in New York City, at the age of 78. He had left St. Thomas for New York a few weeks ago for a new assignment there as chaplain at Leo House, a Catholic guesthouse providing hospitality to travelers.
Health problems � and the benefits of a warmer climate � had brought Father Fabiano to South Florida in 2004, after 40 years of ministry at parishes in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Yonkers and other cities in the New York region.
At St. Thomas, he will be remembered fondly by members of the Emmaus retreat community. One of them, Mickey Itchon, described Father Fabiano in a posting on Facebook as “our brother, friend, mentor, priest.”
Born in New York City on April 17, 1937, his baptismal name was Frederick Fabiano. He took the name Philip when he entered the St. Lawrence Novitiate in Milton, Mass., Aug. 31, 1955. He professed perpetual vows Sept. 1, 1959, and was ordained a priest at Sacred Heart Church, Yonkers, Jan. 11, 1964.
In addition to parish work, he attended Fordham University for religious studies; obtained a master’s degree in education from St. John University, Jamaica, N.Y.; and received a Master of Divinity from Cathedral College, Douglaston, N.Y.
He served as Provincial Minister and Provincial Councilor of the order. He also was instrumental in starting the Nehemiah Houses Program in Brooklyn and was actively involved in Yonkers Interfaith Education and Leadership while serving there in the early 1990s.
He also served as chaplain at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., and chaplain at St. Rose Home in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated at Sacred Heart Church, Yonkers, N.Y. on Saturday, May 9, at 11 a.m., followed by burial at Sacred Heart Cemetery.
Father Fabiano is survived by Lucy, one of his three sisters; his sister-in-law Marie; and the children of his siblings, including two other brothers who are deceased.
Donations in his memory may be made to Saint Clare Friary, 110 Shonnard Place, Yonkers, NY, 10703, for the continued health care of elderly friars.
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