Abbot Dismas Kalcic, the ninth abbot of our community, passed into eternity Sunday. Funeral arrangements and a biography are below. Please pray for his repose.
Reception of the body and Vigil will be at St. Procopius Abbey at 7pm on Friday, September 27th. Funeral Mass will be at St. Procopius Abbey at 10:30am on Saturday, September 28th.
RT. REV. DISMAS B. KALCIC, O.S.B.
IX Abbot of St. Procopius Abbey
Born: January 1, 1929
Professed a Monk: June 26, 1955
Ordained a Priest: May 27, 1961
Elected Abbot: December 30, 2002
Resigned: June 22, 2010
Died: September 22, 2024
Abbot Dismas B. Kalcic, O.S.B., ninth abbot of St. Procopius Abbey died at St. Patrick’s Residence, Naperville, Ill., on Sunday, September 22, 2024.
Bertrand Kalcic was born into Joliet’s St. Joseph Slovenian Parish on January 1, 1929. He attended Joliet Catholic High School before, at the age of seventeen, joining the Army, by which he was assigned to the Alaskan Command from 1946-1948. He was recalled to the service, this time in the Air Force, during the Korean War, and he served in the Strategic Air Command from 1951-1952. Returning to his home in Joliet, Bertrand was one Sunday encouraged by Fr. Denis Svec, O.S.B., the monk from the Abbey who assisted on weekends at St. Joseph Parish, to study at St. Procopius College. There he found himself impressed by the community, especially by the prayers of the brothers. As he would put it in later years, he was attracted by the thought of spending his life among holy people. As Frater Dismas, he professed monastic vows on June 26, 1955. While continuing his studies, he taught English at St. Procopius Academy for several years and served as a residence hall director at the College. On May 27, 1961, Father Dismas was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Martin McNamara in St. Raymond Nonnatus Cathedral in Joliet. The following year, he was awarded a master’s degree in economics by the University of Notre Dame, and he also taught that subject at St. Procopius College. He soon began work on a doctorate in economics, first at Johns Hopkins University and then at Washington University in St. Louis. From 1966-1972, he taught at the College, serving also as Chairman of the Economics Department. His administrative gifts were recognized by his 1973 appointment as Executive Vice President of what had become Illinois Benedictine College. The following year, having been awarded received a grant from the Department of Labor for the purpose, he completed his doctoral dissertation, “Interarea Education Earnings Differentials: A Cross Section Analysis,” and received his degree from Washington University. He then accepted the position of Executive Vice President & Vice President for Academic Affairs at the College of St. Francis in Joliet. There he spent three years developing new structures, degree programs, and policy statements. In 1977, he took up work again in Lisle, becoming the Business Manager at Benet Academy. Over the next eleven years, he did much both to improve the school’s finances and to expand the use of computers, both in the classroom and in office operations. In 1988, he became pastor of a church long staffed by the Abbey, St. Mary’s in Phillips, Wisconsin. Three years later, after St. Mary’s merged with the other Catholic parish in Phillips, Father Dismas took charge of two nearby parish communities, St. Paul’s in Catawba and St. John’s in Prentice. In all these parochial assignments, he made a concerted effort to improve both physical plant and finances, while developing the parishes’ spirituality according to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, upon which he frequently preached. In 2001, at the age of seventy-two, he retired to the Abbey, with the thought of part-time teaching in one or the other of the schools. But in December 2002, he was surprised to be elected to succeed Abbot Hugh Anderson. Over the next seven and a half years, Abbot Dismas worked to compose and implement both a strategic plan and other developments in policy for the monastery. He and the community hosted the 48th General Chapter of the American Cassinese Congregation in 2004, and a new Abbey publication, The Clerestory, began in 2005. In the later years of Abbot Dismas’ reign, the Abbey gave generously to support the building of St. Jude Hall at Benet Academy and began the process of transferring the former property of St. Scholastica Mission House to the Academy for additional parking and athletic facilities. Following the election of Abbot Austin Murphy in 2010, Abbot Dismas assisted with campus ministry at Benedictine University and especially at Benet Academy. Only in his ninety-third year did the burdens of age require him to withdraw from outside ministerial work. His health gradually deteriorated during 2024, and in August of that year he entered St. Patrick’s Residence.
Abbot Dismas is survived by his monastic community and many nieces and nephews. In memoriam, a candle burns brightly in his honor at his place at table in the monastic refectory.
The Prior and Monks will receive his body on Friday, September 27, 2024 at 7:00 p.m., at Vespers. The Community will celebrate the Mass of Christian Burial on Saturday, September 28, 2024, at 10:30 a.m., with interment in the abbey cemetery on the campus of Benedictine University.
Please remember Abbot Dismas in your prayers.
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