SPENCER – Br. Bernard Matthews, O.C.S.O. of St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer died following a very brief illness Saturday, September 26 at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester.
Born John Michael Matthews on February 5, 1926 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to William Matthews and Mary Mahoney, he graduated from Northeast Catholic High School and St. Joseph College, both in Philadelphia. He was a boatswain in the U.S. Navy initially in the Pacific theater, but after two of his brothers were killed in operations there, he was recommissioned back to the U.S. where he was assigned to naval maneuvers plying the Delaware River.
In 1949 he entered the Trappist order as a Lay Brother postulant at the Abbey of Our Lady of the Valley in Rhode Island, receiving the name Bernard. Early the next year that monastery was destroyed by fire and the monastic community moved to a temporary residence at the CCC Camp at Chepachet, Rhode Island while preparing its permanent home at Saint Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer. It was at Spencer that Bernard pronounced his solemn vows as a Lay Brother in 1955.
Over the years Brother Bernard set the gold standard for the dedicated Trappist Lay Brother, daily to be found working at clearing dried leaves on the abbey grounds and sweeping the cloisters up to the week before his death. In earlier times he had been the director of Trappist Preserves, the abbey’s jams and jelly industry as well as the cellarer, the official in charge of the property and material structure of the monastery. Fondly remembered for his soft-spoken, old-style gentlemanly manner of communication, for the bulk of his 71 years at the abbey, he kept a meticulous chronicle of day to day events and happenings, handwritten in pencil, a treasury of data notable for its clarity and the wealth of information preserved.
Brother Bernard was pre-deceased by his parents William and Mary and his siblings Anthony, William, Virginia DiGiulio, Dolores Orth and June Boyle. In addition to his religious brothers at the abbey, he leaves his brother Joseph and his sister Geraldine Celic as well as numerous nieces and nephews, especially the twins, Mary and Ernest DiGiulio. With gratitude for the gift of his presence among us, the brothers commend Brother Bernard’s soul to your prayers. There are no calling hours. Due to restrictions concerning COVID-19 protocols, services and burial are strictly private. J. HENRI MORIN & SON FUNERAL HOME, 23 Maple Terrace, Spencer, 508-885-3992, is directing arrangements.
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