Fr. Arthur Roland Rossie, C.Ss.R., Redemptorist and St. Louis, MO native, Dies

DENVER, Co... (December 26, 2007)...Rev. Arthur Roland Rossie, C.Ss.R., who recently celebrated 50 years of priestly ordination, passed away after a long illness on December 25, 2007 at St. Clement's Health Care Center in Liguori, MO. He was 85 years old.

Arthur Rossie was born on April 20, 1922 in St. Joseph, Missouri. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Omaha, Nebraska, where the future Father Rossie received his primary and secondary education, which included time spent at Creighton University and St. Norbert's College in Wisconsin. He also spent some time working for IBM.

But his heart was set on becoming a Redemptorist. On his road to that goal, in 1952, he entered their minor seminary in Kirkwood, Missouri. A year later, in June of 1953, he entered Mt. St. Clement's novitiate in DeSoto, Missouri where he professed his first vows on August 2, 1954. Three years later, on July 2, 1957, he was ordained a Redemptorist priest.

At the time of his ordination, the seminary schedule included an extra year of preparation called the tirocinium, so it was not until July 1959 that Father Rossie entered into the active priestly ministry. Even so, his first duties involved serving as a teacher at the Redemptorist seminary in Edgerton, Wisconsin, from the fall of 1959 until May of 1967, when he was sent to be the superior of the Redemptorist Provincial House in Chicago.

He continued ministering in the Provincial House until January of 1978 when he was asked to work for the next three years in Rome, at the central finance office for the world-wide Redemptorist order. In July 1981, he was named rector of the Redemptorist retreat house in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, and in 1987 he took a turn at another retreat house in Fargo, ND.

He returned to live in the Chicago area from the fall of 1988 until October of 2000, when, for reasons of health, he was forced to retire to St. Clement's Healthcare Center in Liguori, MO.

If you would like to make a donation in Fr. Rossie's memory, to help support the work of the Redemptorists, please make your check payable to Redemptorists/Denver Province and mail it to:

Redemptorists/Denver Province
Development Office
1230 South Parker Road
Denver, CO 80231

Milestones:

Born: April 20, 1922
First Profession: August 2, 1954
Ordained: July 2, 1957

WAKE:

Friday, December 28, 2007 at 7:00 p.m.
Chapel at St. Clement Health Care Center
Liguori, Missouri

MASS of the RESURRECTION:

Saturday, December 29, 2007 at 10:00 a.m.
Chapel at St. Clement Health Care Center

BURIAL:

Immediately following Mass at the St. Clement Cemetery, Liguori, Missouri.

Please remember Fr. Arthur Rossie, C.Ss.R., and his family in your prayers and Masses, and may he rest peacefully for all eternity with our Redeemer.

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The Redemptorists are a religious congregation of Catholic priests and brothers founded in southern Italy in 1732 by St. Alphonsus Liguori, C.Ss.R., a doctor of the Church and one of her greatest saints. Redemptorists around the world celebrate this year the 275th anniversary of their founding.