Berard Vogt, OFM

1883 – 1966

Fr. Berard Vogt, OFM, was born on Feb. 15, 1883, in Kuellstedt, Germany. He came to America in 1895 and studied at St. Joseph College in Teutopolis, Ill.

He was received into the novitiate on September 8, 1902, and professed temporary vows Sept. 12, 1903. Fr. Berard made his profession of solemn vows Sept. 17, 1906, and was ordained a priest in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Newark, N.J., on June 5, 1909.

Fr. Berard went on to receive a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Louvain in 1912, and was assigned to St. Stephen’s Friary in Croghan, N.Y., where he taught for 10 years. He served as master of clerics for six of those years and cared for St. Anthony’s Church in Indian River and St. Vincent’s Church in Belfort.

In 1922, he went to Christ the King Seminary in Allegany, N.Y., and then in 1925 to St. Anthony Friary in Butler, N.J., as the philosophy courses were moved to those locations. He taught in Butler until 1953, and was parochial vicar of St. Joseph Church in Echo Lake, N.J.

Fr. Berard was a councilor of the Province from 1928 to 1931. He founded the American Catholic Philosophical Association and is credited with many scholarly published works. He completed fifty years of teaching while at Christ the King Seminary and received the honor of Lector Jubilatus of the Order. He celebrated his golden jubilee of profession in 1953.

He died June 26, 1966, at St. Bonaventure Friary in Allegany. He was 83 years old, a professed friar for 62 years and a priest for 57 years.