Judge Memorial CHS graduate ordained a priest

IC photo/Marie Mischel

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Father Basil Louis Franciose, OSB chats after the July 20 Mass at the Carmelite monastery.

SALT LAKE CITY — A little more than a month after being ordained a priest, Benedictine Father Basil Louis Franciose returned home to the Salt Lake Valley for a visit. His time in the valley included celebrating Mass at the Carmelite monastery and at the Cathedral of the Madeleine.

Fr. Basil is a member of Judge Memorial Catholic High School’s Class of 2013, where he was the senior class president and also received the Christ the King award. In addition, he was a member of the baseball team and was manager of the basketball team. He entered Judge in his sophomore year.

A Congregationalist when he first started at Judge, he enjoyed the opportunity to study faith and history. As he attended Mass, learned more about Catholicism and met practicing Catholics like Pete Espil, the campus minister at the time, he began to consider converting. He entered the Church on April 17, 2012, in the spring of his junior year of high school. Espil was his sponsor.

For college he explored a number of Catholic institutions, including the University of Portland and Gonzaga University, but ultimately settled on Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire because it was a small school and he had family in the area. St. Anselm Abbey is located on the college campus and the monks serve the school.

When he started at Saint Anselm, Fr. Basil wasn’t considering pursuing a religious vocation, although the thought was at the back of his mind, he said. He chose theology as his major. Settling into life at college, he soon began to attend daily Mass, which was offered in the afternoon before dinner. Then, for Lent during his junior year he started going to Vespers.

“I really enjoyed that because we chanted psalms back and forth,” he said, and that was when “the heart of monastic life became attractive to me.”

In the fall of his senior year, he added daytime prayer at noon to his routine. Realizing that he already was enjoying most of a monk’s prayer schedule, he entered the abbey in March of 2018. After his novitiate, he attended St. John’s Seminary in Boston. He was ordained a priest on June 17 of this year. He took the name Basil after Basil of Caesarea, also known as Basil the Great, a fourth-century bishop and Doctor of the Church who wrote on various topics, including on the Holy Spirit. St. Basil also was known as a preacher and father of Eastern monasticism.

When considering what name to take, Fr. Basil first thought of Benedict, because he was born on that saint’s feast day and he thought it would be nice “if I could have my birthday and name day celebrated on the same day,” he said. However, one of the abbey’s customs is that the men not take the same name as another of the monks living at the monastery, and “we have a Father Benedict already.”

Looking at other options, he realized he wanted to take the name of a monk, and that St. Basil is one of only five people mentioned by name in the Rule of St. Benedict.

Fr. Basil has many qualities that make him a good priest, including his love of people and his dedication to the Lord, said Abbot Mark Cooper of Saint Anselm Abbey. “He’s made a commitment and he’s very serious about it. … We have felt all along that he’s a good candidate for our life; it’s one of prayer, it’s one of service, and he’s really excellent in all the areas we look for in a young person to be successful in that vocation as a monk.”

As a monk, Fr. Basil lives on a strict schedule. Life at the monastery begins with morning prayer at 6 a.m., followed by  lectio divina, breakfast and then work. Daytime prayer is at noon, followed by lunch. Coming back from work in the afternoon, the monks attend Mass, then have dinner and a recreation period. Vespers is at 7:05 p.m., followed by the Grand Silence until the next morning.

While some find that lifestyle draining, for Fr. Basil it is satisfying. He has never awakened in the morning and been reluctant to go to morning prayer despite the early hour, he said. “To look at the life and say, ‘I not only don’t mind, but I look forward to morning prayer at 6 a.m.’ – that’s pretty indicative of where your mind is and where your heart is at.”

 “It’s a beautiful life,” Fr. Basil said, adding that the monks are a disparate group of men who would otherwise not know each other but “we come for a common reason: We’re drawn to the monastery by Christ. It sounds very pious, but it’s true.”