 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. |
