Submitted by: Dan Rich
Jan. 27, 1911 - June 12, 1997
South Bend Tribune 6/14/1997
The Reverend Francis A. Provenzano, CSC, 86, died at Holy Cross House, Notre Dame, Ind., at 10 a.m. on Thursday, June 12, 1997. Father Provenzano had talen ill in Santiago, Chile, in early 1997, and returned to South Bend, Ind., for medical treatment on April 6, 1997. Father Provenzano was born in Boston, Mass., on Jan. 27, 1911, the son of the late Louis Provenzano and Lucy Lerardi.
He entered Our Lady of Holy Cross Seminary at North Easton, Mass., in 1936, and entered the Holy Cross Novitiate in North Dartmouth, Mass., on Aug. 4, 1937, where he pronounced his first vows on Aug. 16, 1938. On May 26, 1942, he made his perpetual profession of his religious vows and the Foreign Mission Vow. Father Provenzano was ordained to the priesthood at Sacred Heart Church, Notre Dame, Ind., on June 24, 1944, by the Most Reverend John Noll, Bishop of Fort Wayne, Ind.
Prior to entering the seminary,
Father Provenzano had graduated in 1934 from Northeastern University with a B.S. degree in industrial engineering with high honor. After his novitiate he continued his studies in philosophy, mathematics and physics at Notre Dame. He continued his studies in theology at the Foreign Mission Seminary in Washington, D.C., beginning in 1940.
Father Provenzano's first assignment as a priest was to teach mathematics at Holy Cross Seminary, Notre Dame. A year later, in 1945, he began his lifelong career at St. George's College in Santiago, Chile. Except for two years, 1961-63, when he taught at Notre Dame High School, Niles, Ill., Father Provenzano spent the rest of his priestly life in Chile. He was a teacher, administrator and superior of the Holy Cross religious in Chile. When the military intervened in St. George's in 1973,
Father Provenzano taught vectorial mechanics at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, worked in a parish and taught at Colegio Andacollo before returning to St. George's. From 1978 until he came to Holy Cross House, he had continued to be active in the apostolate of St. George's College in Santiago.
On May 23, 1961, Father Provenzano was awarded the medal ''Orden al Merito Bernardo O'Higgins,'' conferred by the Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs, don Enrique Ortuzar. The decoration, the oldest in the Americas, is given by the Chilean government to those foreigners who have given distinguished service to Chile. More recently he was granted honorary citizenship in Chile by President Patricio Aylwin. Father Provenzano was a highly respected and revered priest in Chile. He was by everyone's standard a gentleman-priest. Memorial Masses will be held in the near future in North Easton, Mass., and in Santiago, Chile. Father Provenzano is survived by an older sister, Mrs. Isabella
Leutz from Squantum, Mass., and by his nephew, Theodore F. Leutz (Bonnie).
A wake service will be held at 7:30 p.m. on
Sunday in the Chapel of Moreau Seminary, Notre Dame, Ind.
Visitation begins at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. The Funeral Mass of the
Resurrection will be celebrated at 3:30 p.m. on Monday. Burial
will follow in the Community Cemetery at Notre Dame.