Fr. Lucien Senecal (1897-1972)
Hastily anointed after a heart attack in his room at age 75, Father Lucien or “Père Lucien,” died on November 17, 1972. He fell near a bed that he had constructed from scratch! He was a maker of all kinds like the lectern the monks have used for many years at Mass and the Opus Dei. He, with a bit of help, put in a language lab on the top floor of now St. Benedict Hall when the oral-Aural method of studying modern and even ancient languages was coming into vogue.
Father Lucien was from a small French community in Zurich, Kan. Two of his brothers became priests of the Salina Diocese and two sisters were members of the Sisters of St. Mercy, Omaha. Lucien was the uncle of Abbot Barnabas Senecal and of Father Gerard Senecal.
He did all his early education after grade school at St. Benedict’s and after novitiate at St. Vincent Archabbey he pronounced first vows August 15, 1925. He was ordained to the priesthood December 22, 1928. He was appointed professor of French at St. Benedict’s College after earning a master’s degree at the University of Iowa in 1930. Later he earned a doctorate in French from Laval University in 1953, Quebec, Canada. He was master of brothers twice and prefect of ecclesiastical students in the college Father Lucien was a most generous member of the community who always did what obedience asked but with his own particular mannerisms and flair for the dramatic. Even his casual greetings, celebration of the Eucharist or the simple smoking of a cigarette were not dull but enthusiastic events.
