Father Bruno helped create Monk Sauce

Published: February 9, 2018

Father Bruno Fuhrmann, OSB

Father Bruno Fuhrmann, OSB

Father Bruno Fuhrmann, OSB, a monk at Subiaco Abbey for 68 years and a priest for 63, died Jan. 24. He was 88.

He was born Bernard Fuhrmann July 31, 1929, the youngest son of Joseph and Mary Orth Fuhrmann in Gainesville, Texas. He followed his older brother, Brother Michael Fuhrmann, to Subiaco Academy, graduating in 1947. The next year, Father Fuhrmann became a novice, professing religious vows on Sept. 15, 1949, and received the name Bruno. He was ordained a priest May 16, 1954.

Father Fuhrmann taught at Subiaco Academy for a year and served as pastor of St. Scholastica Church in New Blaine. Throughout his priestly ministry, he served as associate pastor or pastor at St. Mary Church in Altus, Sacred Heart Church in Muenster, Texas, St. Edward Church in Little Rock, Sacred Heart Church in Charleston and St. Ignatius Church in Scranton. In 2003, his last assignment was as pastor of Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Booneville, where he celebrated his 50th jubilee. From 1974 to 1990, he was procurator and treasurer for the abbey. He was a missionary at Santa Familia Monastery in Belize from 1992 to 2002, working in the garden to help supply food to the monastery and retreat center. He helped grow the peppers and cook the famous “Monk Sauce.”

Father Fuhrmann worked on the abbey farm and during the week at the sawmill with Brother Michael, who died in 2005.

Father Fuhrmann was an avid fisherman. The abbey said, “Many stories recounted his expertise as a fisherman, and Father Bruno laughed as long and as well as those who told the stories. To the end he still enjoyed supplying fish for the monastic tables.”

In 2016, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, still making daily trips to the sawmill while receiving cancer treatments.

He is survived by one sister, Juliana Grewing of Muenster, Texas.

The vigil service was Jan. 26 and a Mass of Christian Burial was Jan. 27, with burial in the abbey cemetery.