11 July 2021, I finally was able to celebrate my golden jubilee of profession of Benedictine monastic vows. The celebration in July 2020 had been postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
I was delighted that my brother, Bro. Benedict FSC on my right above, and Bro. Charles Gresh FSC, former HS teacher, came from La Salle University, Philadelphia, 9-13 July. Charles, 88, had been on campus more often than Ben, 82.
+Bro. Benedict Oliver FSC MA (1938-2021) Sadly, exactly one month later, my brother died, 11 August 2021. He had devoted his life as a De La Salle Christian Brother to Catholic education, spending 30 years, at different times, at his beloved Central Catholic High School, Pittsburgh, PA. May he rest in peace.
Author: Richard
I grew up in Philadelphia where I graduated from La Salle University in 1968, the "Year of Revolting Students." I had changed my major from Philosophy to German to, finally, English (special interest: 1870-1914).
Having made solemn monastic vows as a Benedictine monk at Saint John's Abbey, I earned in Iowa City a masters of arts degree in Library and Information Science, 1974. A few years later I served as an intern in Special Collections at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, UK, 1979-80.
For almost five years I oversaw the microfilming of medieval manuscripts in Durham, UK, and several sites in Germany for the abbey's Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (www.hmml.org).
In August 2016 I completed seven years with the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, Silver Spring, MD. I returned to the monastery in central Minnesota in a red 2007 Toyota Corolla from the abbey fleet.
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