One hundred fifty years ago, two Franciscan friars left their troubled homeland of Germany and arrived in western Pennsylvania seeking a new place to establish a friary and to extend their ministry. They were welcomed by the Benedictine monks in Latrobe, Pennsylvania and later received the blessing of the Pittsburgh bishop to stay and establish their ministry.
Father Bob Marva, OFM Cap, provincial minister for the St. Augustine Province who recently served as pastor of St. Agnes/Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Cleveland, shared the history of the province during a Mass celebrating the friars’ 150th anniversary. The celebration took place Sept. 30 at the Conversion of St. Paul Shrine in Cleveland. The Capuchins’ local friary is on the shrine campus. The property also serves as home to the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, an order of contemplative religious sisters. Bishop Edward Malesic was principal celebrant for the liturgy of thanksgiving.
(See above for a photo gallery from the event.)
Father Marva said the Pittsburgh bishop offered the friars a parish with a congregation of mostly German immigrants. The friars were grateful, but nearly rejected the offer. Pittsburgh was a gritty city, unlike the rolling hills and farmland they left behind in Germany. There was no place to raise livestock or to plant a garden, Father Marva said. However, the friars decided to accept the offer and began their ministry.
“If only they had settled 100 miles further west. I wonder how their brown habits would have blended with the orange and brown (of the Browns football team in Cleveland),” mused Father Marva, as the congregation smiled, “But, that’s a story for another day,” he quipped.
The Capuchins continue to minister in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. The order was welcomed to the Cleveland Diocese in 1978 and the following year, after closing its seminary in Pennsylvania, moved its formation program to Borromeo Seminary in Wickliffe. Father Marva said the friars strive to remain faithful to their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. In the Cleveland Diocese, the friars are involved in numerous ministries, including parishes, hospital, prison/jail, food pantries, counseling, spiritual direction, preaching, education and more.
“This day allows us to say thank you,” Father Marva said, noting the gratitude of the friars to the diocese for its welcome and continuing warmth,
“We have sent you friars, some of whom may be saints, but all are bona fide characters,” he said smiling. “You are the gift we celebrate today. We thank God you allowed us to share our faith with you.”
Father Marva said the Church and the world were very different places 150 years ago. “While our roles may change, the Capuchins are still here seeking God’s grace and serving. We will continue to cast a net to gather as many as possible and we’ll trust in the Lord to sort it all out.”
He thanked the faith community of Cleveland for its faithfulness, the bishop for his welcome and for allowing them to serve and God for guiding the order to the diocese.
The Capuchins will persevere, Father Marva said, as he and his brother friars chanted, “Thank you, Lord. Thank You, Lord, Thank you, Lord. I just want to thank you, Lord.”
After Mass, the bishop told those gathered it was an honor for him to be there and to celebrate 150 years of Capuchin ministry with the Province of St. Augustine. As a Pennsylvania native and past bishop of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, which is near Pittsburgh, Bishop Malesic said he is familiar with the Capuchins and their ministry.
“You are the best thing Pittsburgh ever did for Cleveland,” he told the Capuchins.
In the Cleveland Diocese, the friars staff several parishes including St. Agnes/Our Lady of Fatima and St. Peter in Cleveland, the Conversion of St. Paul Shrine in Cleveland and Holy Spirit Parish in Garfield Heights. They also are involved in numerous other ministries throughout the diocese.
“It is a blessing for us to have a religious order among our seminarians,” the bishop told the friars. “Your confidence in our seminary program fills my heart with profound gratitude and great admiration.”
Bishop Malesic said on this day of celebration, they also were remembering all the Capuchins who serve, who have served and those who have gone on to their eternal reward.
“Your province has done a lot of good in a lot of parishes. We will never forget that,” the bishop said, noting how the Capuchins head out to the peripheries to serve the marginalized and others in need.
“Congratulations on 150 years as the Capuchin Province of St. Augustine,” Bishop Malesic added.
The bishop and friars also extended thanks to the Poor Clare sisters for their work maintaining and decorating the shrine for the anniversary celebration.
A reception hosted by the sisters followed the Mass.
Click here to learn more about the St. Augustine Province.