A former priest who stole $1.3 million from his parish to support a life of luxury was sentenced Tuesday to 37 months in prison and ordered to pay $1 million in restitution.

The Rev. Michael Jude Fay, 56, pleaded guilty to a federal fraud charge in September for setting up secret bank accounts to pay for travelling around the world and to buy a condominium, authorities said.

Fay, who had been a pastor of St. John for 15 years, presented his own apology in the court for his mistakes, which have brought shame to his parishioners, his family and friends. He pleaded for mercy, calling himself “ashamed, repentant and broken.”

"I beg you for your mercy. Do not send me to prison. I am already in prison," Fay, who has prostate cancer said.

Fay resigned last year from his job at the St. John Roman Catholic Church in Darien after investigators working for the Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport said that he used church money for limousines, paying for the staying at best hotels in the world, buying jewelry and clothing from Italy.

U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton said Fay’s action was carried out over several years and ultimately devastated the church members.

Fay’s lawyer cited his client’s good work for his church, as well as his disease, which he said had spread to other parts of his body to obtain a sentence of home confinement.

The sentence was given as a message saying that nothing can save you from going to prison, not even the priest collar, Arterton said.

Fay “was serving only himself . . . When a priest who was supposed to serve others serves himself, the only message should be that you should serve time," prosecutor Richard Shechter said during yesterday’s hearing, according to the New York Post.

The diocese called Tuesday’s proceedings “a day of great sorrow for all concerned.”

Rev. Fay will begin serving his time on April 2 due to his medical condition. He is permitted to enter an experimental treatment program for his spreading prostate cancer, Arterton said.