Post by Pacelli on Dec 5, 2021 17:24:52 GMT -5
I was informed recently that the Abbot of the eastern rite monastery in Petersham, MA has passed away. Abbot Driscoll will always be remembered by any who knew him as one who kept the Faith. He was a Roman rite priest ordained in 1963 but due to the decadence in the Latin rite of the 1960's was unable to live his vocation as a monk. By God's Providence, in 1981, he met the Maronite eastern rite bishop of the diocese controlling the eastern half of the United States. The bishop invited Fr. Driscoll to transfer to his rite and start a monastery under his jurisdiction as eastern rite monks.
Fr. Driscoll accepted this, and then transferred. The monastery was strictly based on pre-V2 monastic and spiritual life and as it was a monastery grounded in the Catholic Faith, with the true mass, valid holy orders, and authentic Catholic spirituality, it grew and grew. By the time of the abbot's death this year, the monastery has about 20 monks.
May Abbot Driscoll Rest In Peace!
Obituary taken from the Monks website HERE
Fr. Driscoll accepted this, and then transferred. The monastery was strictly based on pre-V2 monastic and spiritual life and as it was a monastery grounded in the Catholic Faith, with the true mass, valid holy orders, and authentic Catholic spirituality, it grew and grew. By the time of the abbot's death this year, the monastery has about 20 monks.
May Abbot Driscoll Rest In Peace!
Obituary taken from the Monks website HERE
ABBOT WILLIAM OF THE SACRED HEART, MMA
11 February 1932 — 19 September 2021
Our father founder, Abbot William of the Sacred Heart, MMA passed away quietly in the late morning of Sunday, September 19, 2021, the feast of Our Lady of La Salette. He was 89 years old.
Born on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, February 11, 1932 in Beverly, Massachusetts to William and Elizabeth (Morse) Driscoll, the youngest of four boys, William graduated from St. Mary’s High School in 1950 and immediately joined the Trappist Monastery of St. Joseph in Spencer, MA. He always spoke of his time and training there as exceptional and was most grateful for it. Due to weak physical health, however, he was advised not to make solemn vows and so left the monastery in 1956.
Soon after, he joined the Society of Holy Apostles in Montreal and was ordained a priest on August 31, 1963 by Bishop Damasus Laberge, O.F.M. He was then appointed as Vice Rector of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Washington, D.C. and, a year later, was made Novice Master for the Society of Holy Apostles. Fr. William was appointed Dean of Men in 1975, at their seminary in Cromwell, CT during which time he pursued a doctorate in Clinical Pastoral Psychology at Andover Newton University, which he received in 1977.
Yet the desire to live a monastic life never left him and, so, he requested permission to start a monastic order under Cardinal Medeiros, the bishop of Boston. The order began in Rockport on the Feast of the Nativity of Mary, September 8, 1978. It was based on St. Francis of Assisi’s rule for hermits and focused on a life of contemplation and Eucharistic Adoration.
In 1981, enamored with the beauty of the Maronite Liturgy, Fr. William petitioned the Maronite Archbishop, Francis Zayek, first to receive bi-ritual faculties and then, under the same bishop’s direction, to enter the Maronite Church. Bishop Zayek warmly received him and his monks and would be instrumental in establishing the Maronite Monks of Adoration in years to come.
In 1985, after several other moves, Fr. William moved the monastery to Petersham, MA. He was blessed as its abbot on April 21, 1996 by Archbishop Zayek and remained superior of the monastery until his retirement in 2019.
He died as quietly and peacefully as he had lived. A funeral Mass and Burial in the Maronite Catholic Rite was celebrated on Monday, September 20, 2021. Further details about his life can be found in his autobiography, A Calling, published in 2012.
Please keep him and us in your prayers. May he rest in peace!
11 February 1932 — 19 September 2021
Our father founder, Abbot William of the Sacred Heart, MMA passed away quietly in the late morning of Sunday, September 19, 2021, the feast of Our Lady of La Salette. He was 89 years old.
Born on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, February 11, 1932 in Beverly, Massachusetts to William and Elizabeth (Morse) Driscoll, the youngest of four boys, William graduated from St. Mary’s High School in 1950 and immediately joined the Trappist Monastery of St. Joseph in Spencer, MA. He always spoke of his time and training there as exceptional and was most grateful for it. Due to weak physical health, however, he was advised not to make solemn vows and so left the monastery in 1956.
Soon after, he joined the Society of Holy Apostles in Montreal and was ordained a priest on August 31, 1963 by Bishop Damasus Laberge, O.F.M. He was then appointed as Vice Rector of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Washington, D.C. and, a year later, was made Novice Master for the Society of Holy Apostles. Fr. William was appointed Dean of Men in 1975, at their seminary in Cromwell, CT during which time he pursued a doctorate in Clinical Pastoral Psychology at Andover Newton University, which he received in 1977.
Yet the desire to live a monastic life never left him and, so, he requested permission to start a monastic order under Cardinal Medeiros, the bishop of Boston. The order began in Rockport on the Feast of the Nativity of Mary, September 8, 1978. It was based on St. Francis of Assisi’s rule for hermits and focused on a life of contemplation and Eucharistic Adoration.
In 1981, enamored with the beauty of the Maronite Liturgy, Fr. William petitioned the Maronite Archbishop, Francis Zayek, first to receive bi-ritual faculties and then, under the same bishop’s direction, to enter the Maronite Church. Bishop Zayek warmly received him and his monks and would be instrumental in establishing the Maronite Monks of Adoration in years to come.
In 1985, after several other moves, Fr. William moved the monastery to Petersham, MA. He was blessed as its abbot on April 21, 1996 by Archbishop Zayek and remained superior of the monastery until his retirement in 2019.
He died as quietly and peacefully as he had lived. A funeral Mass and Burial in the Maronite Catholic Rite was celebrated on Monday, September 20, 2021. Further details about his life can be found in his autobiography, A Calling, published in 2012.
Please keep him and us in your prayers. May he rest in peace!