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95-year-old priest continues ministry despite ailments
By Gina Keating, The Catholic Sun
November 1, 2007
GILBERT — When Fr. Stephen Adrian celebrates the 6 p.m. Mass at St. Anne Parish on Saturdays, it’s better than story time at the library.
The 95-year-old priest settles down in a chair provided for him in front of the altar, extends his hands and says, “Hi, children. You may come up to Father.”
And they do. A gazillion of them.
The children scoot as close as they can to Fr. Adrian’s feet before they begin to spill down the sanctuary steps like icing on a cake.
“He’s like your favorite grandpa,” said Mason Payne, 16. “The kids look up to him, and they love his stories.”
Fr. Adrian has a gift of capturing everyone’s attention with his masterfully woven homilies that illuminate the Gospel, or a parable that sends a clear and direct message.
Since his retirement to the Valley of the Sun in 1984, Fr. Adrian has been hearing confessions, hosting retreats, helping with sacramental formation and celebrating Mass.
“I told the Lord, put my feet on the ground and I will work for You,” he said. “There is no such thing as retirement. It’s been quite an experience for me and I have a lot of satisfaction.”
Although his pace has slowed, Fr. Adrian delights in sharing Jesus’ love with the children. His physical demeanor changes once he is in the sanctuary, like a flower that blossoms in the sunlight.
No one would ever know Fr. Adrian is blind, or that he is in crippling pain when he stands.
“When I ask the children to come lead me, there’s more to it than what it appears,” he said.
For visual assistance, the sanctuary steps are marked with blue painter’s tape, and Fr. Adrian wears a pair of jeweler’s glasses that help form letters from the shadows.
Deacon Keith Boswell has been assisting Fr. Adrian for the past six years.
“We do a dance on the altar each week,” Boswell said. “I know how he moves and he knows how I move. It’s an incredible honor to serve with him. Being his age and wanting to serve every day, he’s a priest who truly strives for holiness.”
Fr. Adrian’s Hail Mary Club
“The Fr. Adrian Hail Mary Club” began very innocently nearly two years ago during a shorter-than-normal homily.
That night the Holy Spirit moved Fr. Adrian to invite the children of his parish to join the club, which has since spread to parishes across the nation.
“I was talking to the children and the words came to me to ask the children if they wanted to have a club,” Fr. Adrian said. “I told them, we’ll call it ‘The Fr. Adrian Hail Mary Club’ for more priests and sisters, and to let the Blessed Virgin know we don’t just remember her on feast days, but every day. The Holy Spirit was pushing it right through me.”
His community returns its love for Fr. Adrian in many ways. One is printing and handing out club cards and selling club T-shirts with his image.
Six-year-old Christopher Belanger is a member who proudly wears his light-blue shirt to Mass.
The young Catholic recently said he no longer needed to pray the Hail Mary because he’s going to be a priest himself, according to his mother, Karly. But then he had another thought.
“He came back moments later and said he would continue to pray for all the other boys who don’t know they want to be priests yet,” Karly said.
But Fr. Adrian isn’t just a hit with the children.
His life of service, gentle spirit and words of wisdom have earned him the name “Yoda,” from the teens at St. Anne.
During a confirmation retreat years ago, the teens made him a Yoda T-shirt as a tribute.
“Yoda is the oldest and wisest Jedi, who is like a priest,” said Liz Mirrione, 25. “Fr. Adrian is loved by all the teens because of his perseverance. He’s such an inspiration to young people that they can do whatever they set their minds to.”
Fr. Adrian founded St. Anne’s Knights of Columbus council in 1991 and started the fourth degree assembly, named after his late best friend, Msgr. Paul Koscielniak.
Since his ordination in 1939 in the Archdiocese of St. Paul, Minn., Fr. Adrian has served as a Navy chaplain, taught in the seminary and ministered as a parish priest.
“These are the golden years of my life,” Fr. Adrian said of his retirement. “I am purely concerned with the spiritual life of the people, without the interruption from the world of finances.”
While he continues in ministry at the parish, Fr. Adrian is acutely aware his earthly body is bound for glory.
As he walked out of church at the end of a Saturday night Mass, Fr. Adrian reached out to hold the hand of a young boy.
Glancing down he asked, “I’m going to go to heaven, will you be my replacement?”
The boy, with a club card in his pocket, responded with a resounding, “Yes!”
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