A proud native son of the archdiocese, Father John Joseph (Aquinas) Farren, OP, died at Rosary Hill Home, Hawthorne, New York, on Oct. 21, 2025, where he had been residing since early September.

Born in Medford on April 28, 1938, he was the son of the late Neil and Mary (Cavanaugh) Farren. He attended the Hillside School there for a few years until he entered St. John the Evangelist elementary and high schools in nearby Cambridge. There, the faculty were the Dominican Sisters of St. Catharine, Kentucky, and they were a strong influence on his vocational choice to enter the Order of Preachers.

A brilliant student, he entered the formation program for the Dominicans' St. Joseph Eastern Province with initial studies at Providence College, then a novitiate at Somerset, Ohio. There, he received the religious name Aquinas.

He went on to philosophy studies at St. Stephen Priory, Dover, then back to Providence before completing philosophy and theology studies at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. Providence Bishop Russell J. McVinney ordained him to the priesthood at St. Dominic Church, Washington, D.C., on June 11, 1964.

He completed his doctoral work in Washington and was granted a doctorate in sacred theology (STD) in 1975. During the interim, while working on his doctorate, he volunteered to serve with the province's Peruvian mission in the Territorial Prelature of Chimbote. There, he renewed Boston contacts as the Missionary Society of St. James the Apostle served in parishes of the prelature.

From 1974 to 1980, he was in Rome serving at the Dominican generalate at Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill as the assistant to the Master of the Order for Apostolic Life. French Dominican Father Vincent de Couesnongle was the Master of the Order of Preachers at the time. In this position, Father Farren traveled across the globe supporting and encouraging the friars, nuns, and sisters in their Dominican vocations.

He returned to the U.S. in 1980 and completed a postdoctoral year at Yale Divinity School, reading at St. Mary Priory in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1981, he was in New York at St. Vincent Ferrer Priory, assigned also to the National Society for the Propagation of the Faith.

He was twice elected the prior of the House of Studies in Washington, D.C. (1986-1992); among his tasks was preparing for the much-needed upgrading and expansion of the physical plant.

He returned to the Eternal City for a sabbatical at the Institute for Continuing Theological Education at the Pontifical North American College, and the next year was asked to serve at the then-Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. At the same time, he was directing the Dominicans' Leonine commission, which is responsible for editing and publishing the complete works of St. Thomas Aquinas.

He returned to New England at the request of the Knights of Columbus to oversee its Catholic Information Service, again living at St. Mary Priory in New Haven.

In 2003, he returned to the Archdiocese of Boston as rector of St. John Seminary, Brighton. It was the first time that a religious had been named rector of the seminary since William Cardinal O'Connell entrusted the seminary to the direction of archdiocesan clergy in 1911. The rectors and faculty previously had been Sulpician priests.

He was rector at a time best described as transitional and difficult. When he left the seminary, a fellow faculty member described him as "tenacious, loving, strong, fatherly, humble, generous, prayerful, dedicated, humorous," to mention just a few virtues.

When he left the position of rector in 2007, he returned to the service of his order, first at St. Vincent Ferrer, then St. Catherine of Siena, both in New York City.

In 2018, he was elected prior of St. Gertrude Priory in Cincinnati, Ohio, but after a year, and at the age of 81, he resigned due to "lack of stamina and energy." He returned to Washington, D.C., to the now-expanded House of Studies, which he had initiated years before, now as a senior friar in residence, serving as counselor and confessor to the Dominicans in formation.

His last assignment was in New York when he returned to St. Catherine of Siena in Manhattan. He remained there until his health required more care, at which point he went to Rosary Hill Home in Hawthorne.

Father Farren's funeral Mass was celebrated on Oct. 27 at Holy Innocents Church, Pleasantville, New York, a parish of the Archdiocese of New York staffed by the Dominican Friars. Father Romanus (Michael) Cessario, OP, of Ave Maria University in Florida, was the homilist as requested by Father Farren.

Sister Mary Farren, RGS, of Watertown, is his sole immediate survivor.

Following the funeral Mass, Father Farren was buried in the Dominican Friars section of All Souls Cemetery, Pleasantville, New York.