Collection 0700-3050 - Joseph P. Jordan, S.J. Collection

Joseph Patrick Jordan, S.J. was born in Hendley Green, Lancashire in the archdiocese of Liverpool on February 4, 1901. While in vocation school, Father Jordan met John Filion, S.J., then-Provincial of the Jesuits in Canada, who invited him to join the Society of Jesus in Canada. Father Jordan relocated to Montreal where he completed his formation at l’Immaculée Conception; he was ordained at Le Gesù in Montreal on August 16, 1936.

Father Jordan spent most of his religious career involved in parish work. In 1938, he served as associate pastor at St. Ignatius in Winnipeg, and six years later, relocated to Spanish, Ontario, where he taught at the residential school and assisted with the North Shore of Lake Huron parishes. Following this, and for the next sixteen years, Father Jordan served as hospital and prison chaplain at St. Andrew’s Parish in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The church basement was converted into a busy social centre, and Father Jordan served as its moderator.

In 1962, Father Jordan returned to Winnipeg as associate pastor at St. John Brebeuf Parish. In 1970, he relocated to California, serving at a parish in the San Diego diocese and then St. Anne’s Parish in Santa Ana before falling ill and retiring to the Jesuit infirmary at Los Gatos. In 1981, after recovery, he joined the community at Los Gatos, and continued to serve as a chaplain to the nearby Sisters of the Holy Names among other parish endeavors around California. In 1988, he returned to the Jesuit Infirmary in Pickering, Ontario, and passed away two years later.