First Abbot of St. Benedict Abbey
Reverend Gabriel Gibbs (Courtesy photo)
The Right Reverend Gabriel Gibbs, Order of Saint Benedict, first abbot of Saint Benedict Abbey in Still River, died Saturday, March 27, after a long bout with cancer.
Joseph William “Bill” Gibbs, the eldest of four children of Sidney and Margaret (Gleason) Gibbs, was born May 19, 1926, in Hornell, N.Y., the city where he also spent his formative years and for which he retained a deep affection.
After graduating as valedictorian of Hornell High School’s Class of 1944, Bill entered Harvard College. His studies there were interrupted after his freshman year, when he enlisted in the Navy, and after intense study served as the first radio technician on the USS Passumpsic AO-107, in both the Atlantic and the Pacific.
Upon returning to Harvard, Bill discovered Saint Benedict Center, a Catholic student center in Cambridge, run by Catherine Goddard Clarke and noted for the lectures of Fr. Leonard Feeney, which was attracting many veterans and college students in the area. Inspired by the Center, Bill left Harvard before his senior year to enter Saint Andrew’s Minor Seminary in Rochester, N.Y., and after graduating went on to enter Saint Bernard’s Seminary. A year later, in November of 1949, he was dismissed from the seminary for upholding the Catholic doctrine Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus (“Outside the Church there is no salvation”), and came to Saint Benedict’s, where other defenders of the same doctrine were also being harassed for their beliefs. A group of these had just a couple of months earlier taken religious vows as Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Bill joined the new community, eventually receiving the name Brother Gabriel.
Brother Gabriel’s leadership abilities were quickly recognized. In January 1950, just two months after taking his vows, he was assigned to the post of prior, beginning a full 60 years of service in the capacity of superior, eight in Cambridge and the remainder in the rural environs of Still River.
With the death of Catherine Goddard Clarke (Sister Catherine) in 1968, and the subsequent illness and death of Father Leonard Feeney (who died in 1978), Brother Gabriel assumed a greater leadership role. In 1976, he was ordained priest, becoming Father Gabriel, and in 1993 was elected as the first abbot of the community, which had just been established as Saint Benedict Abbey. Neither his ordination nor subsequent ordinations in the community, nor the elevation of the community to abbatial status, would have been possible except for the pivotal leadership role he had played both in reconciling the community with the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and in incorporating the community within the Benedictine Confederation.
In October 2005 Abbot Gabriel was inducted into the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre with the title of Knight Commander with Star. In 2006, he authored with Owen Murphy memoirs of his experience of the previous 60 years, Harvard to Harvard, The Story of Saint Benedict Center’s Becoming Saint Benedict Abbey.
Abbot Gabriel was predeceased by his parents and his brothers, Thomas and James. He is survived by his sister, Mary Margaret Doran, and her husband, Kevin, of Hornell, N.Y.; his sister-in-law, Kathleen, of Hornell; his sister-in-law, Mary Catherine, of Oxford, Mich. and Citra, Fla.; many loving nieces and nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews; several great-grandnieces and great-grandnephews; and his monastic community.
Visiting hours will be at Saint Benedict Abbey, 252 Still River Road, Thursday, April 8, from 7 to 9 p.m., and Friday, April 9, from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 7 to 9 p.m. A funeral Mass will follow on Saturday, April 10, at 10:30 a.m. in Saint Cecilia’s Church, 180 Mechanic St. in Leominster. The interment will occur at a later date.
Memorial donations can be sent to Saint Benedict Abbey, Post Office Box 67, Still River, MA 01467.
