Quick Facts
Biography
John Heneghan was an Irish priest, editor, and a member of the Maynooth Mission to China, who was murdered by the Japanese forces in the Battle of Manila in 1945. Henaghan was born in Louisburgh, Co. Mayo, Ireland, in 1882, the son of Walter Heneghan. Educated at St. Jarlath's College, Tuam, and St. Patrick's College Maynooth.
He was ordained in Maynooth, in June 1909, by the Archbishop of Dublin, William Walsh. In Easter Week 1916 he heard the confessions of Tuam Volunteers on their way to Athenry to joining the Easter Rising.
During the Second World War, he was the superior of the Maynooth missionaries in the Philippines.
Death
On 10 February 1945, he was removed from Manila together with three other Columban priests, and killed by Japanese forces. In February 1997 there was a monument erected in front of the Malate Church, in the memory of Heneghan, Fallon, Kelly, and Monaghan, part of the unveiling was his nephew and namesake, Monsignor John Heneghan of California.
There a Remembrance bench in the Mayo Peace park dedicated to Heneghan.
He was posthumously awarded The Medal of Freedom the highest civilian decoration, which the U.S can give to non-U.S. nationals, along with his confreres Fr. Kelly and Lawlor
Publications
- White Martyrdom by The Rev. John Heneghan, Published by St. Columban's, Milton, Massachusetts (1946)
- The Secret Scripture of the Poor by Rev. John Heneghan, Published by Clonmore and Reynolds, Ltd., Dublin (1951).
- Father Damien Exemplar of Noble Deeds by Rev. John Heneghan, Published by Clonmore and Reynolds, Ltd., Dublin (1954)