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Traditionalist Issues
Posthumous Homage to
Br. Francis Maluf, M.I.C.M.
TIA recommends Brother Francis of the Saint Benedict Center to the prayers of our readers. He passed away on September 5, 2009, and his funeral will be tomorrow, September 10.
For more information, read the two notes below that were sent to us by readers.
May Our Lady, whose slave he was, grant him the eternal rest.
Tradition in Action
+ R.I.P. Brother Francis Maluf, M.I.C.M. +
A release from the Saint Benedict Center in Richmond, NH
At about 9:00 AM this morning, Saturday, September 5, our beloved Superior, Brother Francis, M.I.C.M., went to his reward.
Brother Francis gave weekly lectures well into his 90s. Here, teaching mathematics. |
Brother had received Holy Communion in the morning, and a few hours later quietly slipped away with little warning. His death was very peaceful. We, his religious family, are greatly consoled by the fact that our teacher, guide, and friend died on the First Saturday of the Month, wearing the Brown Scapular to which he was so greatly devoted, with a candle burning before a nearby image of his beloved Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.
We are grateful to all those who prayed for Brother and had Masses offered for him during his final illness.
Brother Francis will be waked at Saint Benedict Center in Richmond, New Hampshire on Wednesday, September 9 from 2-4 PM and 7-9 PM. The funeral will be a sung Requiem Mass in the traditional Latin Rite, offered by the Very Reverend Father Daniel O. Lamothe at Saint Margaret Mary Church in Keene (where the Keene Latin Mass is offered). The Mass will be Thursday, September 10, at 11:00 AM.
Below is a brief biography of Brother Francis.
Biographical note about Br. Francis Maluf, M.I.C.M.
Brother Francis was born, in the town of Mashrah, Lebanon, about thirty miles from Beirut, in 1913. The Maluf family is descended from the ancient Ghassanids, Christian and Catholic Arabs who courageously kept the Faith in the face of Moslem aggression.
Though poor, Fakhri’s family saw to his education, which was provided at home, in a small school that his father operated. In 1934, Fakhri graduated from the American University of Beirut with a Bachelor’s Degree in mathematics. From 1934 to 1939, he taught physics at that same University.
In 1939, he moved to the United States to attend the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he received first an M.A. and, in 1942, a Ph.D. in philosophy. After receiving his Ph.D., he continued post-graduate studies at Harvard University and Saint Bonaventure University.
From 1942 to 1945, Dr. Maluf taught mathematics and science at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts. From 1945 to 1949, he taught philosophy, theology, and mathematics at Boston College.
In addition to his academic career, Brother Francis’ first decade in America was filled with great religious activity. On the Feast of St. Andrew (Nov. 30) in 1940, he became a Catholic. (Although he came from an historic Catholic family, his father had become a Mason and raised the children with no religion.) Two years later, he met Father Leonard Feeney, chaplain of Saint Benedict Center.
In 1949, Dr. Maluf and two other professors at Boston College were dismissed from the faculty after charging the College, in a letter to Pope Pius XII and the Superior General of the Jesuit Order, with promoting the liberal doctrine of salvation outside the Church. That same year, Dr. Maluf became one of the pioneer members of Father Feeney’s religious Order, the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, eventually taking the vows of religion and the name Brother Francis, after Saint Francis Xavier.
Since that time, Brother Francis has continued to teach Sacred Scripture, philosophy, theology, science and mathematics at various levels. Presently he is Superior of the Order he helped found. At the monastery in Richmond, New Hampshire, when over ninety years old, he continued to give weekly lectures on various topics, teach high school, head the Saint Augustine Institute of Catholic Studies, and oversee the publishing apostolate of Saint Benedict Center.
On July 19, 2009, Brother Francis had his 96th birthday.
Although the Order is of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, Brother Francis was a Melkite Rite Catholic.
Nos, cum prole pia, benedicat Virgo Maria!
Posted September 9, 2009
Read a book review by Br. Francis on
In the Murky Waters of Vatican II
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