Father Dennis Manion

Father Manion was ordained on the Feast of Saints Peter & Paul in 1943. He then undertook further studies at Cambridge before joining the teaching staff of Cotton College in 1946.He became Parish Priest successively at Cobridge and Besford.

In 1975 he was appointed Parish Priest for St George & St Teresa Dorridge and our Church dedicated to St Philomena in Balsall Common. He was not a stranger to the parish. During his years at Cotton he regularly travelled to say mass in either Dorridge or Balsall Common; indeed in 1948 he was the first priest to celebrate Christmas Night Mass in St Philomena’s. This was the period when his uncle, Monsignor Canon Bernard Manion (a former Head Master of Cotton College), was our Parish Priest.

In 1988, after thirteen very happy years during which he oversaw the extension of St George & St Teresa’s Church, and recognising the need for a younger priest to oversee the building of a new church in Balsall Common, he moved to become Parish Priest at Little Malvern. He retired in 1993, spending several enjoyable years at Aston Hall; but as his health deteriorated he moved to St Joseph’s, Harborne where he died on 11 th August in 2007. May he rest in peace

 

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