Fr. Demetrius M. Thomas, O.S.B.

We would like to welcome Fr. Demetrius Thomas to our Parish Family. Fr. Demetrius will be ministering with us on weekends. Fr. Demetrius is initially from Hastings, Pennsylvania, which is a small town of 1,200 people located approximately halfway between State College and Pittsburgh. His family still all live there where his mother is a nurse working at the local hospital, and his father works in a local factory which makes absorbent mats and containers for industrial application. He has one younger brother who works as an electrician.

Fr. Demetrius majored in Social Studies Education and minored in Biology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, it is a Pennsylvanian State school in the town of Indiana and has nothing to do with the Indiana State in the state of Indiana. While he was there, he was very active in the Catholic Student Accusation and other campus ministry opportunities.

Following college Fr. Demetrius worked for Sister’s Place Inc., a non-profit in Pittsburgh, PA. Sister's Pace is a Catholic non-profit that provides housing and supportive services for single-parent homeless families. While there Fr. Demetrius worked in their afterschool program, summer camp, planned and ran mentoring programs for teenagers, and managed their Learning Center (primarily a computer lab and library). He also would take care of basic household repairs and maintenance for the units that the non-profit owned.

In 2010 he joined St. Mary’s Abbey in Morristown and entered the novitiate there in August of that year. Following novitiate Abbot Giles sent Fr. Demetrius to seminary at Seton Hall University. While he was there, he studied the standard philosophy and theology that all seminaries take, but he also received a Master of Arts degree in Special Education, specializing in Instructional Design and Technology.

He made solemn vows as a Benedictine in August of 2014. In 2016, he was ordained to the diaconate and assisted in our parish for the next year while he continued to study and finish his final year of seminary.

Fr. Demetrius was ordained to the priesthood on July 1, 2017 and now serves as our Weekend Assistant.
 
We are very blessed to have him with us!