Father Lukas Etlin, O.S.B. (1864-1927)

Born Albert Etlin in Switzerland, he studied with the Benedictines in his honetown. In 1886 he left for the United States, where he joined the Benedictines in Conception Abbey, Missouri, and took the religious named Lukas. A talented artist, he painted several of the abbey’s murals. From 1892 until his death he was chaplain to the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde, Missouri. His great love for the Eucharist was expressed in a magazine he published, Tabernacle and Purgatory. Through the journal he collected funds for European relief during World War I. He also raised money for scholarships for seminarians, and he aided nearly three thousand. Besides being chaplain and editor, he also taught religion at St. Joseph’s Academy for Girls. On this day in 1927, he died in a car accident. His canonization cause is under consideration.