Retired Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Flanagan, 89, died Wednesday in San Antonio following a long illness, the Archdiocese of San Antonio said.
In recent years, the bishop lived at the Padua Place residence for retired clergy. Funeral arrangements are pending.
“We offer our condolences to the family and countless friends of Bishop Tom Flanagan," San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller said in a statement. "He was a blessing for so many; and in his service in parishes and ministries he was a symbol of God’s grace.”
Auxiliary Bishop Michael Boulette said: “Bishop Tom, as so many addressed him, was a gentle giant, a quiet saint. His ministry as priest and bishop in our archdiocese assisted so many with the grace of God which he lived and preached."
Thomas Joseph Flanagan was born on Oct. 23, 1930, in Carbury, County Kildare, Ireland, the oldest of eight children of Patrick and Mary McNamara Flanagan.
In an interview with Today’s Catholic in 2006, Flanagan said: “Those years growing up in Ireland were hard times. We all shared the times and the poverty. There was a great sense of faith. We got through it. The routine was work, school and activity in local sports.”
Flanagan was ordained a priest by Archbishop Jeremiah Kinane on June 10, 1956, at the Cathedral of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Thurles for the Archdiocese of San Antonio.
Flanagan answered the call to minister in Texas in the 1950s when Archbishop Robert E. Lucey was visiting Ireland seeking priests to serve in the Lone Star State -- mission territory and a world away from the Emerald Isle at that time.
Bishop Flanagan later received his master of divinity degree from Oblate College of the Southwest in 1979. He also studied theology at the Pontifical North American College Seminary in Rome.
After his arrival in San Antonio in September 1956, then-Father Flanagan served as associate pastor in various South Texas parishes as associate pastor at St. Michael in Weimar, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Ganado, and St. Peter Prince of the Apostles in San Antonio, until his appointment in 1969 as administrator, and later pastor, of St. Agnes Church in Edna.
In 1972 he became pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish in San Antonio, serving there until October 1985 and his appointment as pastor of St. Brigid Parish, also in San Antonio, for 13 years. He was named a monsignor by Pope John Paul II on Nov. 29, 1989.
On Jan. 5, 1998, he was appointed auxiliary bishop for the archdiocese. Flanagan was consecrated a bishop on Feb. 16 by Archbishop Flores at the San Antonio Municipal Auditorium.
Bishop Flanagan retired on Dec. 15, 2005, at the age of 75, when his resignation was accepted by Pope Benedict XVI.
