Manton (Joseph E.) is born in Brooklyn.

The son of Irish immigrants, Joseph Manton is ordained a Redemptorist priest in 1929, graduates from Catholic University, serves in parishes in the Bronx, and comes to Boston in 1939 after being assigned to Mission Church. A compelling speaker and radio preacher, his sermons at Wednesday novenas at Mission Church attract some 20,000 worshipers in the 1940s. The author 10 books and countless sermons and radio scripts, he lives in the same rectory room 59 years, sometimes commenting, “They don’t do that at Walpole. They change your cell around down there.” Manton dies at St. John of God Hospital on November 9, 1998.