Br. Leonard Lawrence, OFM, passes away in Manitowoc, Wisconsin

Br. Leonard Lawrence, OFM, 95, passed away peacefully on May 7, 2025, at Manitowoc Health and Rehabilitation Center in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. A humble friar devoted to living a simple lifestyle modeled after St. Francis, Br. Leonard used his nursing and maintenance worker talents to care for others. 

Funeral services were held on Tuesday, May 13, 2025, at the chapel at Calvary Cemetery, 2601 South 14th Street in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, followed by burial in the friars’ plot at Calvary Cemetery. 

Br. Leonard was born to parents Francis and Agnes (née Ryan) on Sept. 3, 1929, in St. Paul, Minnesota, and baptized Gerald. After high school, he joined the U.S. Army. He served in Europe after World War II and later helped construct St. Paschal’s Brothers’ School in Oak Brook, Illinois, to start his life in the order. 

His Franciscan journey began with his reception into the Third Order on May 16, 1959, and profession on May 17, 1960, in Westmont, Illinois. Two years later, he was received into the Order of Friars Minor at the Franciscan novitiate in Teutopolis, Illinois, and given the religious name Leonard. He professed first vows there on June 22, 1963, and made his solemn profession in Quincy, Illinois, on June 22, 1966. 

From 1966 to 1967, he served at the house of studies at Our Lady of Angels in Cleveland, Ohio, and from 1967 to 1969, he performed maintenance and worked in the sandal shop at Our Lady of the Angels Seminary in Quincy. 

For the next two years, Br Leonard served in Brazil. He returned to Our Lady of the Angels Seminary in Quincy in 1971, performing maintenance and studying nursing from 1975 to 1977. He served as a licensed practical nurse (LPN) in Oak Brook, Illinois, from 1977 to 1979 and from 1983 to 1985, and in Indianapolis from 1979 to 1983. 

In 1985, he began a 17-year stint at Corpus Christi Parish-Friary in Chicago, where he served as a nurse from 1985 to 1994, vicar of the friary community from 1990 to 1999, and worked with the parish maintenance staff and outreach ministries from 1994 to 2002. During that time, he began the Corpus Christi Soup Kitchen, which served the community for 26 years. 

In 2002, he returned to his native St. Paul, where he served with outreach ministries at Sacred Heart Parish and was guardian of the friar community from 2002 to 2005. He worked in maintenance and housekeeping for the next seven years at Our Lady of the Lake Parish-Friary in Ashland, Wisconsin, before retiring in 2014. 

Br. Leonard was preceded in death by his parents, a sister, Julia (Sr. Lucille, OSB), and brothers John and James. He is survived by many cousins, friends, and friars from the Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe.