America's Largest Catholic Newspaper
Brother Luke Benbrook, O.F.M. Cap., who served the Capuchin Franciscan friars’ community at St. John the Baptist parish in Manhattan for 33 years, died Jan. 21 at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx. He was 83.
At St. John the Baptist, he served as sacristan, sexton, housekeeper and receptionist. He assisted in the Capuchin Mission and Development Office located at the parish.
In the archdiocese, he also served at Mary Immaculate Friary, Garrison, 1978-1980. He had assignments in New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
Brother Luke also served the Capuchins as a librarian, tailor, cook, launderer and porter.
Born in Plainfield, N.J., he attended Lynchburg College in Virginia, where he majored in English, and Rivier College in Nashua, N.H., where he studied library science. Before entering religious life, he served in the Army Corps of Engineers.
He entered Capuchin Franciscans’ Province of St. Mary in 1966 and professed final vows in 1972.
Since 2013, he resided with other senior friars at St. Clare Friary in the Bronx.
Brother Luke is survived by his brother, Michael.
A Funeral Mass was offered Jan. 25 at Sacred Heart Church, Yonkers. Burial was in the Capuchin Friars Cemetery in Yonkers.
