Gerry Buck wrote to Saint Vincent to get information on Michael Grass. This is the letter he received:

November 24, 2004

Brother Christopher Buck, F.S.C.

Dear Brother Christopher,

Your inquiry of November 17, 2004, was referred to me for response. Indeed, Father Alexius (Michael) Grass, O.S.B., was a member in good standing at Saint Vincent Archabbey. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, on February 12, 1860. He entered the novitiate at Saint Vincent on July 10, 1877, and made triennial vows on July 11, 1878. Three years later he pronounced solemn vows on July 16, 1881. He was ordained to the priesthood on July 22, 1883. He died on October 16, 1918, after a long illness, and is buried here in Saint Vincent Cemetery.

His priestly ministry took him to many places both far and near. You will be able to read much about his various assignments in the enclosed obituary, which appeared in the St. Vincent College Journal, volume 28 number 2 (November 1918).

I am elated that I was able to locate this information for you.

Fraternally yours in Christ,
Omer U. Kline, O.S.B.
Rev. Omer U. Kline, O.S.B.
Archivist
Saint Vincent Archabbey
300 Fraser Purchase Road
Latrobe, PA, 15650-2690

enclosure

OBITUARY

Rev. Alexius Grass, O.S.B.

“They looked with envy on the dead and not with sorrow.” Thus sings the poet, speaking of the monks of the Middle Ages. Such were also the sentiments that filled our hearts, when we heard of the death of the Rev. Alexius Grass, on the afternoon of October 16th; for that day marks the passing of a confrere who had endeared himself to all who ever knew him by the sterling qualities of his disposition and character.
Father Alexius first saw the light of day in the city of Chicago, on the 12th of February, 1860. After he had completed his primary education in the school of St. Joseph parish, he came to St Vincent’s, led by a desire to consecrate his life to the service of God in religion. His classical studies completed, he entered the Novitiate and made his simple profession, on July 11th 1878. Five years later, on the 22nd of June 1883, he was elevated to the holy priesthood. His first charge was at Skidaway Island, N.C., a small Negro school and mission, which had been bereft of a caretaker through the sad death of th Rev. Daniel Hefte. When all possible efforts to make that enterprise successful had proven abortive, he was sent to help out the Fathers at St. Mary Abbey, Belmont, N.C., where he remained for the next two years. The following five years were spent as a professor and missionary at St. Benedict Abbey, Atchison, Kansas. From Atchison, the call of obedience directed him to St. John Church, Peoria, Ill,. to act as assistant pastor to the Rev. Father Rotter. When his services were no longer needed there, he was ordered to remain as teacher and later as superior at the neighboring college of St Bede’s, whose spiritual and temporal progress advanced under his able direction. From 1903 to 1905 we see him engaged in parish work in Covington, Kentucky; from 1905 to 1909, as professor and superior in distant Colorado; and in the fall of 1909, we see him again traveling half way across the continent at the bidding of his superiors to become the pastor of the Fourteen Holy Martyrs Church, in Baltimore, Maryland. Here he labored with singular zeal and success, until the summer of 1916, when a serious affection of the throat rendered him unable any longer to attend to the details of the parish. His superiors, accordingly, recalled him to St. Vincent’s to act as assistant procurator in the monastery. The following year he was sent out once more as assistant to St. Paul Priory, Chicago, Ill. It was while laboring at this place that he suffered an apoplectic stroke which partially robbed of his speech and impaired his mental faculties. It was hoped at first that he would eventually recover his normal health; but, after undergoing treatment in various sanatariums under different physicians, his case was found to be hopeless. In August of the present year, his condition became so serious that he was confined to his bed in St. Francis Hospital, Pittsburgh. The Angel of Death finally came to his releif on the afternoon of October 16th, and called him to his eternal reward.
Those who knew Father Alexius best will remember him long for his unfailing charity, his constant geniality, and fun-loving disposition. A musician of no mean ability, he delighted to spend his leisure hours in the entertainment of his confreres. A true cosmopolite, he was at home in all places and among all kinds of men. He had a most happy faculty for scraping an acquantance with persons of the most widely varing dispositions and temperaments and making them all love him. Without the least effort or offense he could strike up a conversation with the most casual stranger; whether that stranger were a sedate busuness-man on the train or a carefree bootblack on the street, seemed to make little difference to him. His was the disposition of a father and the heart of a child. Consequently, none loved and respected him more or feared him less then children. And that youthful heart within him never grew old. His mirth and joviality remained with him to the very end. When his speech became impaired and he found difficulty in making himself understood, he would persist in making sport even of this sad infirmity. With the knowledge of faith and the vision of hope and charity we know what will be his reward in eternity. We can conceive of no more eloquent prayer for him than that of the Church: ‘May he rest in the Lord’; but, if it is true, as Father Faber says, that all the innocent pleasures of this life will continue, ennobled and spiritualized, in the next, then we would like to imagine him regaling himself with those joys of Paradise that are the most innocent and childlike. We would fancy him--and we say it reverently--wandering in the company of kindred spirits through the illimitable ether spaces, kicking up the star-dust along the Milky Way, flitting from star to star and playing boisterous games with the children of other worlds.