Fr Peter Kevine Devine RIP
Fr Peter Kevin Devine (1925 - 2009)
Fr Kevin Devine died peacefully in the Dalgan Nursing home on the night of 8th September 2009. Kevin was born on 15th March 1925, in Derrykerrib, Portadown. He was educated in Derrykerrib NS, St Columba’s Portadown, and CBS, Armagh. He came to St. Columbans in 1943 and was ordained priest on 21st December 1949. Kevin was appointed to Japan in 1950. |
Having completed language studies he worked in the Diocese of Yokohama, in Misono, Katase and Hiratsuka. In the 1960s and 1970s he worked in the Diocese of Fukuoka, in the parishes of Hitoyoshi, and Oe, and as chaplain in Biwasaki Convent.
After participating in a renewal programme in 1980, he returned to the Diocese of Yokohama, appointed as pastor in Kozu. There he served for more than twenty years.
Kevin was a hard-working pastor, very interested in people, proficient in Japanese language, and he made many friends in the parishes in which he served. He struggled with various health problems all through his life, but bore them stoically. Over the years in Japan, he had learned patience, had become gentle and mellow, and the staff remember him as courteous, kind, uncomplaining, and with a subtle sense of humour.
When he no longer had the capacity to continue, he returned to St Columbans Nursing Home in Dalgan in October 2004, where he was visited on several occasions by former parishioners from Japan.
May he now rest in peace.