Fr. Seán Murnan, OFM, 82, died on Aug. 25, 2025, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A native of Ohio, he spent his ministry as a missionary in New Mexico, Mexico and Peru.

The Reception of the Body and Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 2, beginning at 11 a.m. at Holy Family Catholic Church, 562 Atrisco Dr SW, Albuquerque, NM 87105. Burial will be at Mount Calvary Cemetery, Albuquerque, in the friars’ plot. A reception will be held in the parish hall afterward.

Fr. Seán was born April 28, 1943, to Robert and Viola Murnan in Cincinnati, Ohio. The second of six children, he was baptized at St. Martin Church in Cheviot, Ohio, and attended Elder High School in Cincinnati. After high school, he attended Michigan Technological University, majoring in forestry and biological sciences. While in his second year of college, he felt called to become a priest and contacted the Franciscans. He worked for a roofing and sheet-metal business from 1964 until August 1966, when he entered the novitiate. One year later, he professed his first vows as a Franciscan.

He completed his bachelor’s degree in philosophy at Duns Scotus College in Southfield, Michigan, and received a Master of Divinity degree from St. Leonard College in Centerville, Ohio. He made his solemn profession on Sept. 5, 1970, at St. Leonard College and was ordained there on June 9, 1973.

Reflecting on his time in initial formation years later, Fr. Seán wrote “As I continued on toward solemn profession in the Order of Friars Minor and toward ordination to the priesthood, the sense of emptiness subsided, and I began to experience a sense of happiness and peace that has, for the most part, remained with me ever since,” he said. “I am convinced God has called me to my present life and he continues to call me to fulfill his mission on this earth. I am also convinced that my own happiness is inexorably connected to my cooperating with his call. … I really believe we are a brotherhood and I try to live out that belief in my relationships within the province.”

Following ordination, Fr. Seán served the people of Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico, as assistant pastor of St. Joseph Parish for a year and a half, before serving as pastor of the parish in Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico, from 1974 to 1979. He returned to the Midwest in 1979, serving as assistant pastor of St. Louis Parish in Batesville, Indiana, for a month, and assistant pastor of St. Francis Parish in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine district of Cincinnati for five months. Fr. Seán returned to Laguna Pueblo in 1980, serving first as assistant pastor, then pastor until 1991, caring for six churches in six villages. In addition, he served on the Pueblo Board for legacy Our Lady of Guadalupe Province from 1986 to 1992.

From 1987 to 1991, and again from 1996 to 2012, he served on the province’s auto policy and purchasing committee and as provincial auto coordinator. Fr. Seán also served several times as a Provincial Councilor, from 1991 to 1992, 1997 to 2000, and 2010 to 2012, while also serving as minister delegate, parochial vicar and chronicler for Parroquia de San Francisco in Juárez, Mexico and caring for the nearby parishes of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and St. Margaret of Cortona. From 1994 to 1996, he ministered at Misión Franciscana in Peru.

Fr. Seán then returned to the United States to serve as pastor of San Jose Parish in Los Ojos, New Mexico and guardian of the friary from 1997 to 2000. He also served as provincial chronicler from 1999 to 2002. In 2002, he became pastor of St. Anthony Mission, Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico, serving in that role until 2011, and also serving as guardian of the friary from 2002 to 2009. From 2003 to 2009, and again from 2013 to 2015, he served on the provincial finance committee. He served on the province’s business advisory committee in 2013 and 2015, and on the Chapter steering committee in 2014.

In 2012, Fr. Seán became pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Peña Blanca, New Mexico, while also serving as guardian. In 2014, he took a yearlong sabbatical before serving as provincial treasurer while living at Our Lady of the Angels Friary in Ava, Missouri. Since 2019, Fr. Sean had resided at San Juan Diego Friary in Albuquerque.

Fr. Seán is survived by his sisters Sue Spohr and Mary Espich and brother Mark and his fellow friars of the Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe.