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Father Bede Classick OSB

November 14, 1940 - May 26, 2021

The funeral Mass and the burial of Father Bede’s remains in the Abbey
Cemetery will be private. You are asked to keep a remembrance of Father
Bede and his Benedictine community in your prayers.
Abbot Marion Nguyen, O.S.B
& Monastic Community

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FATHER BEDE EDWARD CLASSICK, O.S.B.
1940 – 2021

In the early hours of the evening of Wednesday, 26th May 2021, our confrere
Father Bede Classick, O.S.B., fortified by the Sacraments of the Church,
peacefully passed to God in the Abbey Infirmary. Father Bede had suffered
for some time with congestive heart failure, and was under the care of his
physician. At the time of his death, he was serving as an appointed member
of the Abbey’s Board of Directors and Senior Council, was Treasurer of Saint
Martin’s University, an ex officio member of the University’s Board of
Trustees, and also a member of several Board committees.
Edward Classick was born to Edward and Alice Hirst Classick, on 14th
November 1940, in Newark, New Jersey. His early education took place in
New Jersey. He later received a B.A. from St. Benedict’s College, Atchison,
Kansas, and an S.T.M. from the Union Theological Seminary, New York City.
Father Bede made his first profession of monastic vows as a Benedictine at
St. Paul’s Abbey, Newton, New Jersey, a monastery of the St. Ottilien
Congregation, in 1962, and in 2003 formally transferred his stability to Saint
Martin’s Abbey, a monastery of the American Cassinese Congregation. He
was ordained to the priesthood in 1967 at St. Mary’s Abbey Church,
Morriston, New Jersey, by Bishop Lawrence B. Casey.
Father Bede’s many assignments at St. Paul’s included that of Guestmaster,
work in the Abbey’s Business Office, Oblate Director, and Prior. During his
two decades at Saint Martin’s, in addition to his University-related work and
membership on Abbey boards, Father Bede exercised his priestly ministry
regularly for many years at Sacred Heart Church, Lacey, where he was a great
favorite of many of the parishioners.Father Bede was a humble gentle man, a kind and positive presence in
community. He always had a ready smile and a twinkle in his eye. One of his
University colleagues observed that he really lived the “ear of the heart”, and
one never felt he was not listening to you. Father Bede was a great lover of
classical music, an avid reader of the Church Fathers, history-related books,
and current favorites. He loved traveling, and save for a visit to cousins in
England, native land of his late parents, his travel to Germany, Italy, Africa
and China was mainly on assignment from his community. He took his
almost daily walks religiously, and relaxed by doing the crossword puzzle
from The New York Times.
In addition to his Benedictine community and many colleagues and friends,
he is survived by his twin sister, Pat Classick, of Plano, Texas, who spent
several days with her brother shortly before he passed to God.
The funeral Mass and the burial of Father Bede’s remains in the Abbey
Cemetery will be private. You are asked to keep a remembrance of Father
Bede and his Benedictine community in your prayers.
Abbot Marion Nguyen, O.S.B
& Monastic Community