Born Philip Flynn, the young man from Boston who embarked on a life of ministry, took the name “Fabian” upon his entry into the Congregation of the Passion on February 8, 1931, at which time he was ordained a Catholic Priest of the Passionist Order. He was commissioned a U.S. Army chaplain in October 1942, and after his training, in November 1942 he was assigned to the 120th Station Hospital at Camp Barkeley, Texas. In March 1943 he volunteered for overseas service and was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, joining them in time to participate in the Sicily invasion in July 1942, where he earned a Silver Star and was wounded by a grenade. He recovered from his wounds in time to join his regiment for the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. After the war, he served at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremburg. He left the military in 1946, and directed relief efforts in Germany, Hungary, and Austria, as a member of the War Relief Services, and retired from ministry in 1972.