Fr. Claude Enslein (1881-1958)

Father Claude Enslein passed away July 24, 1958.

For the clerics who were involved in every aspect of his care, Father Claude was a model and an experience. He was a model in that he accepted the suffering that came into his life as a result of an unfortunate auto accident while he was pastor at Purcell, Kan., in an uncomplaining way.  He was an experience in that his uniqueness as a native-born German, and a dedicated, unselfish monk was the source of endless stories.

Father Claude taught at St. Benedict’s College and later was one of the first four monks assigned to Maur Hill after the high school was moved from the college campus to the former and recently purchased Midland College campus in 1920.  He was in charge of the “minims” the littlest of the students, the lower grade.  It was a rule in the school at that time that inside the newly refurbished Administration building the students wore slippers to save the floors!  Father Claude remembered the first day there.  “The Sisters served a tasty breakfast of sausage, eggs, toast and coffee.”  He kept a journal many years of his life in which he recorded events, rainfall and temperatures – low and high!

There were over a dozen clerics involved in the care of Father Claude.  Two slept in the room next door in case of an emergency call.  Father Claude had a very loud buzzer.  It was bad news when he announced that he was “in the woods.”  The euphemism meaning that a certain part of the anatomy was not working properly.

Fr. Paul Beherens and Father Claude corresponded with each other even though they lived together in the monastery but on separate floors. Each was an expert in the Palmer Method of handwriting that featured a very florid script, some elements even were shaded.  Father Claude would address his letters to “The Reverend Raymond Woydziak, O.S.B.,” though the recipient was only a floor away.

There are so many more foibles and anecdotes to record; for example, how the spoon was withdrawn from the honey jar at the “precise psychological moment.”  But we will stop with these few.  Though confined, Father Claude seemed content with that.  His room provided space for German classes and for listening to the St. Benedict’s Ravens win the 1954 NAIA National Basketball Championship.