Aelred Reid

Mass of Christian Burial for Brother Aelred Reid will be 10:30 a. m. , Monday, February 24, 2014 in the Assumption Abbey Church. Burial will take place in the Abbey cemetery. A Vigil service for Bro. Aelred will be 7:00 p. m. , Sunday, February 23rd in the Abbey Church. Brother Aelred (Joseph) Reid, OSB, 59, died at St. John’s Abbey, Collegeville, MN, on February 17, 2014, from an apparent heart attack. He was attending St. John’s University working on a Master of Arts degree in Pastoral Ministry and living at St. John’s Abbey. Bro. Aelred was born in Boston, MA, on March 20, 1954 to Joseph Francis Reid, Jr. and Joan Adele (Villiard) Reid, the first of four children. He received his elementary and high school education in local public schools. During this time, he harbored an unspoken inclination toward religious life. After high school, he spent several months traveling through Europe planning his religious life. In 1973, he entered the Society of African Missions as a college seminarian with a trajectory toward mission work in Liberia, West Africa. While in the seminary Bro. Aelred was exposed to the Trappist monks at St. Joseph Abbey, Spencer, MA. This experience awakened in him a desire for monastic life. At the end of the fall semester in his senior year of college, he chose to leave his religious community, the Society of African Missions, as he felt a call to a more monastic way of life. He completed college in 1978 and being encouraged to experience life more broadly, began to work for many years in human services with the mentally challenged and the psychologically disabled. In 1986, he moved to southern Florida where he continued to work in human services, as well as in sales and marketing. He also was introduced to the restaurant business and continued that line of work when he moved to New York in 1991. Despite doing fairly well he was not happy. Bro. Aelred worked on a deeper relationship with God. The Dominicans at St. Vincent Ferrer Priory in New York City were most helpful to him. He also reconnected with his youthful interest in the religious life. In the summer of 2000, he came to the Assumption Abbey in Richardton. After completing candidacy and novitiate, he made his monastic profession March 21, 2002. While in formation Bro. Aelred worked at various capacities at the Abbey, from the laundry, the farm, as sacristan and various janitorial duties. He also developed an interest in icons and in mounting them. He became very good at this since he had a keen sense of beauty. On January 15, 2007, he began to work at Home on the Range, Sentinel Butte, ND, as chaplain. He resigned on April 23, 2009 and began to work at Sacred Heart Church in Glendive, MT, and its missions as a pastoral worker and Director of Religious Education. To help him in his DRE work, Bro. Aelred began part-time studies toward a MA in Pastoral Ministry at St. John’s University, Collegeville, MN, during the summer of 2011. In the fall of 2012 he became a full-time student at St. John’s. We at Assumption Abbey express our gratitude to the monks of St. John’s Abbey for their warm hospitality to Bro. Aelred and for their kindness on the occasion of his death. Bro. Aelred is survived by his mother, Joan Reid; two brothers, Ronald (Barbara) and Michael (Shari) Reid; one sister, Diane (Samuel) Wagner. He is preceded in death by his father, Joseph F. Reid. MAY HE REST IN PEACE Abbot Brian and Community


Burial Date: February 24, 2014
Funeral Home Dickinson, ND

Mass of Christian Burial: Monday: Assumption Abbey Church, Richardton, ND