Born Joseph O’Meara on May 25, 1901 in Malden, Massachusetts, he was the son of Patrick O’Meara and Ellen Waldron. He attended Immaculate Conception Gammar School and Boston College High School and then one year at Boston College. In 1922 he entered the Passionist novitiate in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was professed on November 9, 1923 and received the name Finbar. He studied for the Passionist priesthood in Brighton, Massachusetts, Scranton, Pennsylvania, Union City, New Jersey and Jamaica, New York. He was ordained on February 8, 1931. This was the famous thirty priests of 1931.
Over the years Father O’Meara was stationed at St. Paul’s Monastery, Pittsburgh, Immaculate Conception, Jamaica and St. Gabriel’s in Brighton as a popular preacher.