Vocation Discernment
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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. Gabriel Aloysius Knauff, OP
Aloysius Knauff was born in Los Angeles on April 5, 1896. He was the third of a large family that attended St. Joseph's parish, downtown Los Angeles. His brother was the Provincial of the Franciscan Order in California, Fr. Martin Knauff, and his sister was a Franciscan as well. He entered the novitiate after one year at St. Mary's College in Oakland, taking the name Gabriel. In addition to the standard formation courses, Fr. Knauff took courses in Church history, history of Education and Social Psychology at Catholic University of America in Washington. The summer after his ordination, he took classes in Physics and Literature at UC Berkeley.
His first assignment was as a teacher at Aquinas High School in Portland, Oregon. He returned to minister in Los Angeles from 1934 to 1936. He then taught in Benicia, California and soon was appointed Novice Master. He was appointed by the Provincial Council as Archivist and Historiographer of the Province on February 16, 1943. He was much in demand as a Retreat Master, leading retreats for the San Rafael Dominican novices and various schools and dioceses. He spent his last three years in the same place that he spent his first three, in Portland as an Assistant Pastor. He died in the city of his birth, Los Angeles, shortly after officiating at the funeral of his sister.
|
Date of Birth |
Date of Profession |
Date of Ordination |
Date of Death |
|
April 5, 1896 |
September 16, 1917 |
June 14, 1923 |
April 4, 1962 |
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