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It was at 11:09 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, last evening that I received an e-mail informing me of the death of +Father Martin Stepanich at around 9:00 p.m., Central Standard Time, in Bolingbrook, Illinois, just six days after he observed his ninety-seventh birthday.

We were privileged to know Father Martin and to hear Mass offered so exquisitely at his priestly hands on many occasions between April of 2007 and June of 2009. We have prayed for him every day these last five and one-half yeas since getting to know him. As we do not presume the judgment of Christ the King upon his priestly soul for the rest of our lives, mindful of the fact that Our Lady will offer the fruit of our prayers to some other deserving soul if he was already entered into the glory of Heaven, whose glories were certainly made present each time he offered Holy Mass.

It is fitting that Father Martin Stepanich died on the Feast of the Dedication of the Basilicas of Saint Peter and Paul as he defended the truth that papacy can never be stained even the slightest taint of error, no less be the instrument of blasphemy, sacrilege and apostasy. He also obliterated the objections of anti-sedevacantists concerning their contention that God "would never permit" there to be an "overly long" vacancy in the See of Saint Peter (see An Objection to Sedevacantism: 'Perpetual Successors' to Peter). He sent meticulously handwritten letters to the apologists of anti-sedevacantism. Not one of these individuals bothered to do Father Martin the courtesy of replying to him.

Father Martin did not save his eloquent fire only for anti-sedevacantists.

No, he, a modern Saint Jerome in many ways, suffered from no desire to please others. He took on the likes of Father Leonard Feeney (see Outside the Church There is No Salvation, by Father Martin Stepanich in .pdf) and those who objected to the validity of the episcopal consecrations performed by the late Archbishop Pierre Martin Nguyen Dinh Thuc (see Father Stepanich on the Thuc Line Consecrations). He objected to the execution by starvation and dehydration of Mrs. Theresa Marie Schindler-Schiavo (see Father Martin Stepanich on Terri Schiavo) and was the firmest defender of the Virtue of Modesty that the traditional movement has ever known, objecting to any and all compromises with any styles of modern dress that offended Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen (see an article of his that was published in 1972 in The Remnant as cited in an appendix at the end of Father Louis Campbell On The Virtue Of Modesty Once Again). And I got to feel the considerable sting of his displeasure in late-2009 when he made known quite publicly his firm disagreement with me for articles that I had written at the time, and he was similarly displeased with others, most of whom had known him longer that we had, who disagreed who with him on the position he had taken at the time. There was never a moment that we stopped pray for him or for those who were caring for him so assiduously.

Father Martin Stepanich showed no favoritism. Even though he remained as a spiritual father to Father Anthony Cekada, who was of the same Slovenian ancestry as his own family, Father Martin took issue with his spiritual son very publicly on the "una cuм" issue in 2008. He had spirited arguments with priests of the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen over his rejection of the liturgical "reforms" engineered by Fathers Annibale Bugnini, C.M., and Ferdinando Antontelli, O.F.M., in the 1950s. He just called them as he saw them as he defended the Faith, which is why I wrote Just Defending the Faith on July 15, 2008.

Father Martin Stepanich, who was just as superb a gardener of flowers and shrubs as he was of souls, wrote for many publications over the years, including The Wanderer and The Remnant. In recent years, of course, he was a regular contributor to The Four Marks, whose publisher-editor, Mrs. Kathleen Plumb, relied upon him so very much for advice and counsel.

More than anything else, however, Father Martin Stepanich, O.F.M., S.T.D., leaves behind the richest of all legacies: the graces made present in the world by means of the Holy Masses that he offered from the time of his priestly ordination on May 18, 1941, to just a short while before his death. He offered Gregorian Masses for many years, assisted the late Sisters Mary Yvonne Rowley, who died several years ago now, and Mary Olive Rowley. Sister Olive served Father so faithfully until her down death on the Solemnity of Saint Peter on June 29, 2009. Everyone who assisted at Father Martin Stepanich's offerings of Holy Mass was edified by the perfection with which he perpetuated in an unbloody manner Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's Sacrifice of Himself to His Co-Eternal and Co-Equal Father on the wood of the Holy Cross in atonement for our sins on Good Friday.

We express our condolences to Father Martin's brother, Fred Stepanich, who lives in The Philippines, and to all of those who were especially close to him in the final years of his life, including Mrs. Plumb, Miss Cecilia Omlor, who cared for him for a long period of time until 2006, Miss Samantha Current, who had cared for so selflessly in the past six years, Father James Kosek, who ministered to him in his dying months, and, of course, the priest, Father Francis Miller, O.F.M., who will offer his Requiem Mass at Saint Hugh of Lincoln Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Wednesday, November 21, 2012, the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom Father Martin had consecrated his entirely priestly life. Father Anthony Cekada, who was, as noted above, also very close to Father Martin Stepanich, will preach the sermon before Father Martin's mortal remains are returned to the Franciscan house in Illinois that he had called home from 1931 until the time he left in the 1970s.

Eternal rest grant unto Father Martin Stepanich, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and all of the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

As I wanted to write these thoroughly inadequate words, work on my next new article will have to wait until later today, the Feast of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, herself a daughter of Saint Francis of Assisi as was Father Martin Stepanich, and the Commemoration of Pope Saint Pontianus.

I do offer you an article on today's feast day, Republished: In Almost Every Family, that was revised last year.

Also, I have updated my Meeting the Mets | A Quirky History of a Quirky Team website that contains news of items that Father Martin Stepanich, who was a huge baseball fan, would have found very interesting. Some of you might find of interest as well.



Father Martin Stepanich, O.F.M., S.T.D., April 21, 2007, Bolingbrook, Illinois. (Photograph taken by Sharon Droleskey. See also Photo Gallery of +Father Martin Stepanich, O.F.M., S.T.D., R.I.P.)