Fr. Meinrad Nordhus (1889-1918)

Father Meinrad Nordhus passed away October 14, 1918.

Father Meinrad was born and raised near St. Benedict, Kan., the area sometimes referred to as “Wildcat.”  He entered St. Benedict’s College in 1904 and feeling a vocation to the monastic life, entered the novitiate, then at St. Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, Pa.  He pronounced his first vows in 1912.  Abbot Innocent sent the newly professed to St. John’s Abbey and College in Collegeville, Minn., to complete philosophy and theological studies.  He was ordained June 11, 1918, and died the following October of complications resulting from pneumonia and heart failure.

The Abbey news has this to say in its obituary:  “Father Meinrad was a hard and patient worker.  While still making his studies for the priesthood he became interested in biology.  The progress he made in it gave promise of future work that would have made a name for him in this important branch of learning.  As a confrere, Father Meinrad was genial and well liked, as a religious and a priest, conscientious.  His loss is deeply felt by all.  Father Clement of the abbey, Frater Cyprian, also of the abbey survive as do three sisters, all members of Mount St. Scholastica Convent.”