Jeremiah Bric was born in April 1834 in Ballymacelligott (In Irish: Baile Mhic Eilegóid) which is a parish in the north of County Kerry in Ireland. He was Educated at St Mary’s Seminary Youghal and All Hallows College Dublin before being ordained on the 8th January 1860 by Bishop Whelan of Bombay specifically for the Eastern District of Scotland as the Diocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh was then known.

His first appointment was as assistant Priest at St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh in 1860 for a few months before being moved to The Immaculate Conception in Bathgate where he stayed from 1860 to 1861 again as an assistant Priest. In 1861 he was then moved to St Andrew’s Cathedral Nethergate in Dundee where he was assistant Priest for 6 years from 1861 to 1867. In 1867 he was appointed as a Parish Priest and sent to Jedburgh to the church of The Immaculate Conception where he was to serve until 1873.

Fr Bric was then appointed to St Patrick’s Kilsyth where he is recorded as the shortest serving Parish Priest being here in Kilsyth for barely a few months. Fr Bric leaves Kilsyth almost immediately and there are no further records of him serving in Scotland again.

Fr Bric then appears on the records of the church in Canada as an assistant Priest in Irishtown Ontario where he is stationed from 1873 to 1875.
He next appears on the records of the church in the USA in Cincinatti Ohio serving as a priest at the Church of the Attonement from 1875 to 1878 and further in Irontown Ohio from 1878 to 1886. He is recorded in Canning’s record of Irish Priests as having died in Ireland but no dates are listed.

There is no further information on Fr Bric in Scotland except for one intriguing letter in the archive of the University of Notre Dame, Indiana USA where a ‘candid’ letter of introduction dated 23rd August 1874 is archived from Archbishop John Strain of Edinburgh to Archbishop John Purcell of Cincinnati Ohio. Archbishop Strain says concerning Fr Bric of whom he felt compelled to ‘dispense of his services’ because ‘his fall was so known as to destroy the utility of his services no matter how repentant he may be.’ Archbishop Strain clearly thinks that Fr Bric is truly repentant and that he is an otherwise good priest. The same letter also refers to the testimony of another ‘excellent young priest’ who turns out to be Fr Turner who Archbishop Strain says lived for a short while in the same house as Fr Bric and was therefor ‘able to judge his character’ – however that ‘his eulogistic testimony should not be disregarded but taken cum grano salis’ thus warning the archbishop in Cincinatti to make his own mind up despite Fr Turner apparently standing behind his colleague.

Whatever fall from grace overtook the mission of Fr Bric in Kilsyth is not recorded but Fr Bric persisted with his vocation and served the people and parishes of Scotland, Canada and the United States for a total of 26 years.