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. William Thomas Lewis, OP
William Thomas Lewis was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Thomas and Elizabeth Lewis in 1885. Like his brother, Regis, William entered the Order of Preachers, and they were to be followed by their younger brother, Raymond. His higher education began at Sacred Heart College. He was ordained on 24 June 1910, at Catholic University of America, in Washington, DC. There, he went onto postgraduate studies at the Dominican House of Studies. In 1913, he went to San Francisco and served as the secretary to the Provincial. He was also assistant pastor of St Dominic's until 1924, when he became pastor to Blessed Sacrament Church in Seattle. Subsequently, he served as pastor in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley and Antioch. He also served the important role of prior of our House of Studies in Oakland, St Albert's College. Also, Provincial Paul Scanlon consulted him regarding the transfiliations of Fr. William Farrugia and Fr. Janko Zagar, two outstanding members of our Province. He spent the past 14 years as a sacristan at St. Dominic's Priory, working to the day he died. He also heard confessions and was a special confessor for San Francisco priests. He was 93 when he died, and was 67 years a priest, 72 years a Dominican.
Photo: William Lewis as an altar server with his brother at St. Dominic's in San Francisco at the turn of the century.
|
Date of Birth |
Date of Profession |
Date of Ordination |
Date of Death |
|
March 10, 1885 |
November 1, 1905 |
June 25, 1910 |
April 30, 1978 |
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