Deceased Friars
The video of the Wake Service held for our brother Allan
on Sunday evening, February 2, 2025, appears here.
The Funeral Mass celebrated on Monday, February 3, 2025, appears here.
Our brother, Allan Wasiecko, OFM Cap., passed to the Lord’s eternal life on January 30, 2025 at a residential rehabilitation center in Pittsburgh, PA. He was 82. Allan was at the Center following a successful surgery to repair a broken femur he suffered from a fall at our St. Augustine Motherhouse on January 17th. His passing was not entirely expected, though health issues and increased memory loss weighed him down in his final years among us.
Born on October 19, 1942, to Stephen and Helen (Pack) Wasiecko in Pittsburgh, PA’s Mt. Oliver district, Allan entered St. Fidelis High School Seminary in Herman, PA, in 1955 and was invested as a novice in 1962, making his first profession of vows to our way of life on July 14, 1963. He was given the name Br. Donan, but he returned to his baptismal name when permitted to do so in 1968. Donan was part of the largest class of young men ever to join the community in one year, the height of the vocations boom in the 20th century. 25 young men joined him in professing vows that year, and 18 of the them went on to priesthood ordination following theology studies at Capuchin College in Washington, DC, on October 19, 1968 (which just happened to be Allan’s 26th Birthday!). Classmates included our confreres John Bednarik and Gene Emrisek. Other brothers would precede him to the “eternity fraternity:” Gary Powell (+1994), Ed Judy (+2003), future bishop Bill Fey (+2021) and Jerome Dunn (+2022).
See the end of the article for livestreaming links of our brother's Wake and Funeral Mass are below . . .
Our brother, Colman Studeny, OFM Cap., passed to the Lord’s eternal life on Friday. October 18, 2024, at our motherhouse, St. Augustine Friary, in Pittsburgh, PA, less than a month after celebrating his 90th birthday. He had been in residence there since 2022 when he retired from his work as a missionary in Papua New Guinea.
Born to Leo and Germaine (Koehler) Studeny on September 28, 1934, he was given the name James at his baptism at Resurrection Parish in Pittsburgh and also where he was to attend the parish grade school. In 1948, James entered St. Fidelis High School Seminary in Herman, PA. Sadly, within six weeks of his arrival there, the young freshman suffered the unexpected loss of his older brother Leo, Jr.
When he was ready to move on to the novitiate year after his second year of college and recieve the habit of the Order, this was his highlight in the 1953 edition of the school's Yearbook, the Skullcap . . .
Read more about our brother Colman and his life on a mission . . .