Vocation Discernment
Are you being called to become a priest or brother?
Click here, and discover what it means to become a preacher of truth!
Vocation Office
Western Dominican Province
5890 Birch Court
Oakland, CA 94618-1626
(510)-596-1821
Our Vocations require a great deal of support, from the first moment they begin their novitiate until the last moments of their retirement. Please do conside visiting our donation page and helping form and sustain the priests and brothers who will serve you in the future, serve you now and have served you in the past.
Saints and Blesseds
The Order of Friars Preachers,
The Dominican Order,
has a beautiful history of learning, service and holiness manifested in its saints and blesseds of every age since its foundation by St. Dominic de Guzman. Do enjoy the periodic postings of such stories as are available from various sources, especially our own archives.
Religious Retirement
Our elderly and infirm friars receive the best care we have available to us, as in any family. We rely heavily on the donations of others for our own existence and thus when one of our own becomes incapable of further ministry due to age or infirmity, those same donations help us support the sometimes necessary special care required by such members of our communities.
We prefer to care for our elderly and infirm in our own houses so that the life of a religious community can be a part of a friars life as long as possible. This is also the most economical in many ways. We strive to use donations wisely. But sometimes a care facility is essential. As we, as a Province, do not benefit from the national collection for retired religious, we ask that you assist us in caring for these friars who have prayed, taught, served and ministered for so many years amomg the people of the Western United States and beyond.
Please, in your kindness, consider assisting us in this work of brotherly love.
Many thanks in advance.
Catholicism
It's just the right thing
Fr. Dominic John Maher, OP
When Fr. Dominic died, he was the oldest priest in California, having served many people all over California. He was born in England and went into the Novitiate at Woodchester, England with the intention of being a friar of the Western Dominican Province. He did his preliminary studies there and after ordination, went on to higher studies in Louvain, Belgium.
In 1879 he arrived in Benicia, California and began his ministry. After a year he was appointed Sub-Novice Master, and taught the Dominican students Church history. He took over the Novice Master role the following year from Fr. Dominic Lentz, OP and continued to teach the students. In 1884, he turned over his teaching position to Fr. Reginald Newell, OP. After a year of being Novice Master, he went back to teaching the Dominican students. In 1888 he became Novice Master again, but only for a year. In 1892, he went to San Francisco to be a Moderator Conferentiarium. He returned to Benicia to teach after six years in San Francisco. In 1914 he became Subprior and in 1923 he became the confessor to the Mission San Jose Dominican sisters.
In 1926, after a total of forty-one years in Benicia, he was assigned to Mission San Jose to be the chaplain to the orphanage. In 1929 Fr. Albert Lawler, OP joined him there for a year. In 1932 he moved to St. Mary Magdalen's in Berkeley. The Novitiate opened in Ross, California in 1933, and Fr. Dominic was one of the first friars to live there and retire. He eventually went blind, but is remembered by some friars as having been a joyous friar, even in his nineties. He died at the age of ninety-six, after seventy-seven years of religious life and seventy-three years of priesthood. May God have mercy on him and reward him for all his service.
Photo: Dominic Maher, OP as a student
|
Date of Birth |
Date of Profession |
Date of Ordination |
Date of Death |
|
June 29, 1854 |
June 1, 1873 |
September 22, 1877 |
December 16, 1950 |
XII: 42