Our Brother Jerome Collins passed peacefully to the Lord on Sunday morning, June 26. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after graduation from high school he served in the U.S. Army during World War 2 as a teletype operator and was honorably discharged, having been awarded Army of Occupation and World War II Victory medals. He worked as a traveling salesman for eighteen months and for three years as a precision tool grinder. Br. Jerome entered our founding monastery, Our Lady of the Valley in Rhode Island, in the autumn of 1949. When in March of 1950 that monastery burned to the ground he transferred with the rest of the monks to help build a new monastery, St. Joseph’s Abbey, on the grounds of the former Alta Crest Farm here in Spencer.
Here at the Abbey Brother Jerome worked as an electrician, cook, and porter. For a little over a year in the mid-1950s, he helped to build the monastery’s daughter-house of St. Benedict’s Abbey in Snowmass, Colorado. Brother was noted for his deep devotion, a serene and humble disposition, his kindness, and his tireless service to the religious life at the monastery.
With gratitude for his gentle presence among us, we commend his soul to your prayers. There are no calling hours.
