Rev. Martin Fahey, left, and Bishop Stephen Donahue, undated 1930s photo, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, Tuxedo Park, New York. (Credit: Tuxedo Park Library).
Rev. Martin E. Fahy (1883-1939) was a Roman Catholic priest who served actors and the military as a chaplain.
Rev. Fahy was elected to The Lambs in 1924 as a clergy member; at the time he had a few years’ experience working with actors.
Fahy grew up around New Haven, Connecticut, son of Michael and Margaret Fahy. He attended local schools. Fahy graduated in 1909 from the Jesuit-run Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts. He entered the seminary at St. Joseph’s College in Dunwoodie, New York. He was ordained a priest in 1913.
Post-college he was sent to study at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., until 1914; Pre-World War I, Rev. Fahy was assigned to Our Lady of Lourdes in Harlem as an assistant priest.
In 1918 Rev. Fahy was granted permission from the Archdiocese of New York to serve in the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF). He entered the service September 1, 1918, and shipped overseas. He was a first lieutenant and served as a chaplain in the 103rd Ammunition Train, 28th Division. He served as chaplain with this outfit for eight months in different sections of France and Belgium. Rev. Fahy had the privilege of delivering the first sermon ever given in English at the Church of Saint-Marie-Madeleine, Paris. Also on Thanksgiving Day 1918 at the Cathedral of St Etienne of Bourges, in the presence of 10,000 people, of which 4,000 were AEF service members, Chaplain Fahy preached the first English sermon ever given in the 900 years of the cathedral’s history. He was discharged May, 26, 1919.
Around 1921 he became chaplain of the Catholic Actors Guild in Manhattan. At the time, the president was actor Brandon Tynan, and an officer was songwriter Gene Buck, both Lambs. The organization was a support network for young men and women who came to New York City and entered show business. Rev. Fahy served as chaplain and treasurer in the guild for 11 years. In 1925 he took 50 from the guild to Rome.
In 1926 he left New York City when he was named pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Tuxedo Park, New York. He served the parish there for 13 years. On April 7, 1939, Rev. Fahy succumbed to tuberculosis at his church. He was 55 years old. He is interred next to his parents and siblings in Saint Bernard Cemetery, New Haven, Connecticut.
–Research by Lamb Kevin C. Fitzpatrick, Club Historian.