|
Bro. Sebastian V. Kuhn, O.S.B.
Our confrere, Brother Sebastian Kuhn, died at Edward Hospital on the morning of August 22, 2009, due to complications following a leg fracture earlier in the month.
Arrangements
The Reception of Bro. Sebastian and Wake Service:
Tuesday, August 25 at 7:00 PM in the Abbey Church
The Funeral and Burial:
Wednesday, August 26 at 3:00 PM in the Abbey Church (burial in the Abbey Cemetery following Mass)
Biography
Born in Charles City, Iowa, on November 20, 1921, Valerian Kuhn graduated with honors from Calmar High School in 1939. He hoped to become a priest of the Society of the Divine Word. Unfortunately, just around the time he enrolled at St. Paul’s Mission House in Epworth, Iowa, he was diagnosed with epilepsy. Given the canonical requirements for ordination at the time, he was soon advised to discontinue his studies.
After a year back at the family farm, Valerian was accepted as a student at St. Procopius College in Lisle, where his uncle, Father Francis Sindelar, was a member of the monastic community. He did well academically, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1943.
With the hope that possibly the epilepsy might be outgrown, he was then conditionally accepted as a seminarian. However, a severe recurrence of the disease forced him to abandon, this time for good, the possibility of being ordained.
Respect on the part of the monks for what Valerian’s pastor called his “studious habits, exemplary conduct, and agreeable disposition” led to employment on the campus as porter for the abbey and schools.
In a sense, he continued with the duties thus assumed for the rest of his life, the only difference being that, for the first two years, he was paid for his work! For in August 1945 he entered the Benedictine community as a lay brother candidate. Having been given the name Brother Sebastian, he professed vows on March 25, 1947.
As well as continuing to assist in the porter’s office, Brother Sebastian spent nearly two decades first as an assistant in, then as manager of, the dairy barn on the monastery’s farm. A fine singing voice led to his recruitment into the choir that, during the reign of Abbot Ambrose Ondrak, conducted Byzantine Rite liturgies at schools and parishes around the Midwest.
As suburban sprawl encompassed Lisle in the 1960s, the abbey farm was gradually closed down. And so Brother Sebastian, with nary a tear in his eye, was relieved of the cows in 1966 and reassigned to the College’s post office. Here he would be a fixture for three decades, cheerfully delivering mail in person to the ever-growing number of offices, during which visits he would cheerfully assist offices with the disposal of goodies at each and every party. Well into his eighth decade, the “friendly postman” continued on his appointed rounds, though moving ever more slowly and needing the support of a cane.
A series of falls towards the end of the 1990s obliged Brother Sebastian to retire from his duties at what had become Benedictine University, though even into the new century he liked occasionally to accompany Father Odilo Crkva on the trips to the Lisle Post Office. He continued until the end of his life to help out, as many hours as he was asked, at the Abbey’s information desk. Prior to a fall a couple weeks before his death, he looked after the mail room of the monastery.
Please remember Brother Sebastian in your prayers.
Abbot Dismas and Community
RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE
|
