Brother Nicholas Prinster, OCSO

IC photo/Marie Mischel

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Father David Trujillo, chaplain at St. Joseph Villa, celebrates the funeral Mass for Trappist Brother Nicholas (Clarence) Prinster on June 23. Concelebrants included Msgr. Colin F. Bircumshaw, vicar general; Msgr. J. Terrence Fitzgerald, vicar general emeritus; and several priests of the diocese and Trappist monks who live at St. Joseph Villa.

Brother Nicholas (Clarence) Prinster, 91, formerly of the Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity in Huntsville, peacefully passed away June 18, 2018 at St. Mark’s Hospital in Salt Lake City.

Brother Nicholas was born on February 17, 1927.  Originally from Grand Junction, Colo., he was Solemnly Professed as a monk of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity monastery on August 15, 1957. He managed the community income-producing industries for many years and ran the monastery’s ranching operation, which had several hundred head of cattle. Besides other responsibilities, he was a “town driver” and in later years made clocks and boxes to sell in the abbey’s gift shop. Since the close of the abbey in 2017, he lived at Saint Joseph Villa, Salt Lake City.

A funeral Mass was celebrated June 23 in the St. Joseph Villa chapel. In his homily, Trappist Father David Altman said people grow only through challenges, and “Brother Nicholas achieved the closeness to God that he enjoyed by persevering through the many challenges of a close community life. … Christ is our perfect example of how we live and grow through life’s challenges into the strength of character we need to live life well, and eventually to die well. Brother Nicholas is also our example now because the one most important example we can follow from Christ and from Brother Nicholas is perseverance. No one has a perfect record, but it’s how a person finishes life – that is what determines our relationship eternally with God. Brother Nicholas was a tough leader in his youth and middle age. I saw and appreciated how his toughness gave way to a greater understanding and kindness as he increased in age.”

It was due to Brother Nicholas’ membership in the Co-workers of Mother Teresa of Calcutta that the future saint visited the Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity in 1972, Fr. Altman said.

“Now that Brother Nicholas has completed his journey on earth, he has earned a place of intercession for us. He has finished his work in time, only to begin the most important work in heaven – of prayer,” Fr. Altman said.

Following the funeral Mass, burial was in the Huntsville monastery cemetery.