The Tribune

THE Catholic community in the Bahamas is joining with the monks of St John’s Abbey, Minnesota in mourning the death of former St Augustine’s monk Father George Wolf, who died on Monday.

Fr Wolf, who served for more than 60 years as a monk and priest in the Bahamas, was credited with bringing Saint Augustine’s College and Monastery back from the edge of bankruptcy in the early 1970s by careful fiscal management.

Described as “a tall and lanky fellow”, Fr Wolf could often be seen walking at a quick pace between the monastery and the campus of St Augustine’s College, as well as zipping along the streets of Nassau.

As a pastor he was also known throughout the islands for his pastoral work, going weekly to Exuma for weekend masses until 2006.

Born in Pearl Lake, Minnesota on March 15, 1916, Fr Wolf was ordained on June 4, 1944.

From 1944 to 2006, Fr Wolf served as a missionary in the Bahamas. Stationed primarily in Nassau, he filled pastoral assignments in Fox Hill, Bimini, Exuma, North Eleuthra, Harbour Island and Freeport.

At Saint Augustine’s College and Monastery, he served as the building and plant manager, as well as sub-prior from 1991 to 1997.

In 1999 Pope John Paul II awarded him the Pontifical Medal Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice in recognition of his more than 50 years of service to the church in the Bahamas.

During the celebration of the 70th anniversary of his monastic vows in 2008, then Abbot of St John’s Abby, John Klassen, said that Fr Wolf’s monastic and priestly vocation had been a gift to the Benedictine Order and to the church, especially the Church of the Bahamas.

He was one of two Benedictine monks that remained in Nassau when the order wrapped up their 114 year mission in the Bahamas in 2005

In March of 2006, Fr Wolf returned to Saint John’s after spending nearly 62 years of his monastic and priestly life in the Bahamas.