- Date Of Birth: November 7, 1916
- Date Of Death: July 22, 2010
- State: Illinois
The Reverend Stephen (John) Souse, O.S.B., monk and priest of St. Bede Abbey, died suddenly and unexpectedly at the monastery shortly after 5:00 PM, Thursday, July 22, 2010. He had been the eldest member of the monastic community.
Fr. Stephen was born in Peoria November 7, 1916, to Tony and Mary (Michael) John. After elementary school, high school, and two years of college, he entered St. Bede Abbey, and following a year of novitiate training in the monastic life at St. Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, made his first profession of vows July 2, 1937. During that year he received the necessary canonical permission from Rome to transfer from the Maronite (Syrian) Rite of the Catholic Church to the Latin Rite.
Upon receiving a bachelors degree in philosophy from St. Bede College in 1939, he studied theology for four years in preparation for his ordination to the priesthood June 13, 1943. He subsequently pursued graduate studies in Sacred Scripture at The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., where he earned a licentiate in Sacred Theology in 1945.
At various times during the 1940s and 1950s, Fr. Stephen taught Sacred Scripture in the seminary at St. Bede, did parochial work as assistant pastor both at St. Francis Church, Ottawa, and at St. Joseph Church, Chicago, and taught typing and did secretarial work at Spalding Institute, Peoria. Throughout most of his years as a priest, he ministered at local parishes on weekends.
At the time of his death, Fr. Stephen was the monastic communitys barber, a position he had held almost continuously from 1937 on. He had been St. Bede Academys registrar since 1950 and St. Bede Abbeys stipendarius, taking care of Mass requests, since 1968. For an incalculable number of years he had been the monasterys most avid indoor horticulturist.
Fr. Stephen was preceded in death by his parents; by one brother, Fayze Souse, and two sisters, Sister Angelina Souse, S.H.F., and Sister Olivia Souse, S.H.F., all of Lebanon; and by another sister, Martha (Souse) Hendricks, of Fort Madison, Iowa. In addition to his monastic confreres, he is survived by one brother, Joseph Tony, and one sister, Elizabeth (Souse) Sears, both of Peoria, as well as by three nephews and four nieces. Peru.
