NOVEMBER 28On this day, 1978, Fr. Xavier Hillenbrand, died of a heart attack in Coban, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. He was the prior of Resurrection Priory there.
Fr. Xavier was born in Evansville, Indiana on August 16, 1935. He entered the seminary at St. Meinrad in 1949, and in September 1955 he entered the novitiate at Blue Cloud Abbey, professing simple vows on September 8, 1956. His solemn profession was made on December 8, 1959 and he was ordained to the priesthood at Blue Cloud on May 20, 1961.
Fr. Xavier was stationed at St. Ann’s Mission on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota from 1962 until 1964. In September 1964, he was assigned to our foundation in Coban, Guatemala. In 1972 he was appointed prior of the community. At the time of his death he was also novice and junior master and director of Centro San Benito, an education center operated by our missionaries for the development of lay leaders among the Kekchi Indians.
Fr. Xavier was enthusiastic about the assignments he received and the projects he undertook. He held to monastic principles and had a firm conviction that there should be no dichotomy between monastic life and missionary work. His confreres remember him as an energetic person who excelled in sports and conversation. He was immensely popular among the people he served in Guatemala, and they insisted on carrying his coffin in procession from the funeral mass to the cemetery a mile away. He is buried in Coban, Guatemala.