Please pray for the repose of the soul of our brother, Fr. Joseph Anthony “Tony” Breen, O.P., who died peacefully at 2:45 p.m. on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, at St. Joseph Home of the Little Sisters of the Poor (15 Audubon Plaza Drive, Louisville, KY 40217), after several days’ vigil by the friars from St. Louis Bertrand Priory.

Joseph Leo Breen, Jr., was born on February 2, 1936, in Providence, RI, the son of Joseph Leo and Etheldreda Helena (née McKenna) Breen. His father was an attorney and his mother was a teacher. He was baptized at St. Pius Church in Providence on February 16, 1936, educated at St. Pius School and graduated from LaSalle Academy in 1954. He took the pre-ecclesiastical course at Providence College from 1954-56, and received his BA in 1959 with a major in Classics.

Father Breen entered the Dominican novitiate at St. Joseph’s Priory in Somerset, OH, in 1956, and received the religious name Anthony. After simple profession in 1957, he went on to St. Stephen’s Priory in Dover, MA, to study Philosophy until 1960, when he moved to the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC, to study Theology. Fr. Breen made his solemn profession in 1960, was ordained to the Diaconate in 1962, and then to the Priesthood at St. Dominic’s Church in Washington, DC, by Bishop Vincent Waters of Raleigh, NC, on June 13, 1963.

After his ordination and until the end of 1964, Fr. Breen preached several novenas for the Mission Band. In 1965, he departed for the Province’s Vicariate of Pakistan. He engaged in pastoral ministry at St. Dominic’s Church in Bahawalpur, West Pakistan, returning briefly to Providence College to obtain an MA in Biblical Studies in 1977. In 1989, he taught Sacred Scripture at Christ the King Seminary in Karachi, and in 1991 was appointed superior at the Pastoral Institute in Multan.

Fr. Breen returned to pastoral ministry at Holy Rosary Priory in Warispura, Faisalabad, in 1996, and in 1999 was appointed Syndic of the Ibn-e-Mariam Vice Province, which had been established in 1982. He served at the same time as Assistant Director of the Vice Province’s Pre-Novitiate at Louis Hall, Sahiwal.

In September of 2000, Fr. Breen returned to the United States and the Province of St. Joseph, first to St. Thomas Aquinas in Zanesville, OH, then to Somerset, OH, where from 2001 to 2009 he served as Pastor of St. Joseph’s and Holy Trinity Churches. He then served as chaplain to the Monastery of Mary the Queen in Elmira, NY, where he also gave assistance to several parishes in the area. In 2014, he was assigned to St. Louis Bertrand Priory in Louisville, KY, where he helped with parochial ministry.

His body will be received at St. Louis Bertrand Church in Louisville, Kentucky, at 4:00 p.m. on the evening of May 25, 2026, with the Office of the Dead celebrated by the Dominican community and visiting friars. His Mass of Christian Burial is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, presided over by Very Rev. Allen Moran, O.P., Prior Provincial.

Eternal rest, grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. Through the mercy of God, may he rest in peace.