Fr. Francis Zmozynski

Father Francis J. Zmozynski died March 6, 2016, at Father Baker Manor in Orchard Park. He was 84.

Father Zmozynski was born May 19, 1931, in Buffalo, to Michael and Stella (Waszak) Zmozynski. He attended Niagara University and attended seminary at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, the country where he was ordained in 1957.

Upon his return to the United States in 1957, he served in a missionary apostolate at St. John Fischer in South Dayton. The following year, he served as an assistant pastor at St. Augustine Parish in Depew; he served in the same capacity at St. Adalbert's in Buffalo from 1961-63 and St. John Kanty in Buffalo in 1963.

In 1964, Father Zmozynski began serving as a professor at Villa Maria College while living at St. Josaphat Parish in Cheektowaga. In 1966, he served as an assistant pastor at St. Valentine in Buffalo and St. Augustine in Depew, and in 1968, he served in the same capacity at Our Lady of Czestochowa in Cheektowaga and Our Lady of Victory Basilica in Lackawanna.

Father Zmozynski served at St. Michael in Lackawanna and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Orchard Park in 1971. In 1975, he was named pastor of Blessed Sacrament in Andover and St. John of the Cross in Whitesville. In 1980, he was transferred to Transfiguration in Olean, where he served as pastor.

He remained in Olean until 1991, when he became pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus in Medina; later that year, he became senior parochial vicar of St. Rose of Lima. He became senior parochial vicar of Prince of Peace in Niagara Falls in 1998.

Father Zmozynski began serving as moderator of the First Saturday Society of Niagara Frontier in 2001, the same year he became spiritual director of the Niagara County Legion of Mary.

In 2003, he started serving as chaplain at Mount St. Mary Hospital and Niagara Falls Memorial Hospital while living at St. Mary of the Cataract Parish in Niagara Falls, where he served as a part-time parochial vicar. He retired in 2004.

During his ministry, Father Zmozynski served as a director of multiple choirs and as a band director at the Villa Maria Institute of Music. He received a master's degree in music from the State University of New York at Buffalo and assisted with the university's band and Little Symphony orchestra, where he performed his own original pieces and lectured on church music to university students.

He is survived by nieces and nephews.

A funeral Mass will be held at Queen of Martyrs Church in Cheektowaga on March 10 at 10 a.m. with a Mass celebrated by Bishop Edward M. Grosz. Burial will be in St. Stanislaus Cemetery, also in Cheektowaga.