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Volume 36, Number 3 |
Richardton, ND 58652 |
July 2008 |
FR. VICTOR IS FIFTY YEARS A MONK
Fr. Terrence Kardong, O.S.B.
When Gerald Feser showed up at the door of the Abbey School in 1953, he had a “unprepossessing” appearance. He was a quiet little fellow from a remote farm, so remote that he took the first year of high school by correspondence. He had no classy clothes and also no smart talk. Some of us smiled at his simplicity. But when the first quarter grades were posted, we smiled no more. He got straight A’s all through school.
After joining the Abbey community in 1957, he made his novitiate under Fr. Norbert Winter, just like the rest of us did for three decades. Frater Victor made his simple vows on July 11, 1958, fifty years ago this summer. His higher education started out with philosophy at St. John’s University in Collegeville where he took a B.A. in 1960. He did his seminary work at home, in the little theologate taught by the monks at Richardton.
But he showed such promise as a theologian that he was sent to Munich to study with Michael Schmaus, Karl Rahner and the rest. He did not finish his thesis in Germany, but he came home fluent in German and very well equipped to handle the new theology of Vatican II. He taught briefly in the Abbey Junior College, and when it closed he was able to get away for more education.
Fr. Victor’s first love never was theology, it was mathematics. And so he was
able to transfer his attention to the latter field by doing a doctorate at St. Louis
University. During his years in St. Louis (1971-
Upon his return to North Dakota in 1975, Fr. Victor settled in at the University
of Mary in Bismarck. For seven years he was both chaplain of Annunciation Monastery
and an instructor in the college. But he has labored as a full-
In addition to his educational work, Victor is also an ardent conservationist.
His contribution to the global problem of pollution and degradation is to pick up
all the aluminum cans he can find. This is not just a casual, now-
As one who grew up almost a classmate of Victor, I can say that he is a remarkable monk and human being. His towering intellectual gifts have never made him arrogant, although he does not necessarily suffer fools gladly. He has the unusual ability to live apart from the monastery for long stretches of time, but still remain monastic to the core.
