- Date Of Birth: February 21, 1929
- Date Of Death: November 8, 2016
- State: Arizona
Father Gregory John Santos, O.C.S.O, age 87, recently of San Francisco de Asís Catholic parish in Flagstaff, died November 8, 2016 after a long and colorful life. Since the age of five, being an altar server and knowing all his prayers in Latin, Father Gregory knew that he wanted to be a priest.
In 1942 Father Gregory entered the St. Joseph College Seminary in California for the Diocese of Hawaii.
In 1950 he entered the monastery of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity in Huntsville, Utah, and was ordained a Trappist monk and priest there on May 23, 1959. In 1961 Father Gregory traveled to Rome and received a license in sacred theology degree from the University of St. Thomas Aquinas. He then returned to Utah, where he taught theology at the Trinity Abbey Seminary from 1961 through 1967.
In 1967 he moved to Georgia and continued his teaching at the Trappist Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers from 1967 through 1969. While in Georgia, he cofounded and was the director of The Bridge, a walk-in and residential adolescent alcohol and drug treatment center in Atlanta. He worked at the center from 1969 until its closing in 1975.
In 1975 Father Gregory received a master’s degree in educational psychology from Georgia State University. Passionate about Carl Jung’s teachings, he completed his studies by receiving an academic diploma in psychology at the Carl Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1980. He used the Jungian principles for his work in dream therapy. In 1991 Father Gregory came to Flagstaff, Arizona, his final destination. Since then he has served many parishes in northern Arizona.
Father Gregory is survived by brother Alexander F. Santos (Norma), sister Eleanor I. Burkart (Alan), and many nieces and nephews.
