 Fr.
Leo Byron Thomas, OP
Leo died slowly. For more than a year we knew he was dying; the notices were
remarkable for how they told of the progress not only of his illness, but of our
perception of his illness. First we were told that the cancer of ten years earlier
had returned and metastasized to his bones, incurable; then we were repeatedly told that
he was giving a witness of courage and strength and faithfulness in the process of
enduring the painful final stages of life. And finally the announcements simply
said: "Let us remember in our prayers Fr. Leo Thomas." It was no longer
necessary to say what he was dying of, or how he was handling it, because he had come to
personify all that each of us hopes to be in his own last days and hours. But if you
are surprised by that, you did not really know Leo: the end of his life was perfectly
in accord with all that had gone before.
Byron Thomas was born on 22 November 1922, the
only child of LeMoyne and Margaret Thomas. He was baptized in St. Mary’s Church in
Marion, Ohio, and attended both Catholic grade school and high school at St.
Mary’s. At age 18, in 1940, he entered Ohio State University, but was drafted
from his studies to serve in the Army Corps of Engineers in the Pacific during World War
II.
After the war, he returned to Ohio State and got his Bachelor of Science degree in
Metallurgical Engineering. Promptly thereafter he went to St. Philip Neri Seminary
in Boston, which was for men who were approaching the priesthood later in life; he was
only 25, but aged and matured by war.
He was received into our Province as Brother Leo in 1948, professed in 1949, and
ordained in 1954. He was in a class of three who reached the priesthood, including
Fr. Felix Cassidy.
During my many hours and days in Leo’s company from 1951 to 1997 I learned, by
example rather than by work, how to be quiet. He was amazingly adept at being quiet.
He was also very economical with words: rarely used three if two would do.
He was as laconic as a New England Yankee.
 When he
finished his studies he was made a Lector in Theology, appointed to the faculty of St. Albert’s and put in charge of the formation of
the lay brothers. He was very sensitive to the fact that brotherhood as it existed
then was ill-suited to the circumstances of the latter part of the 20th century, and so he
began to work that it be changed and made more suitable to our place and time, as in the
Constitutions we have today.
Starting in 1964, Leo served on the staff of the Division of Religion and Psychiatry in
at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas. He guided the Menninger Study of our
Province in the light of the Second Vatican Council, a process involving much collective
introspection, but which created a foundational report upon which we may reflect to see
what we looked like in 1966, and compare what we look like today and at any future time.
In 1969 Fr. Paul Scanlon was elected Provincial, and asked Leo to be his Socius, and
whenever Paul was away, Leo was his vicar. At the same time Leo, together with Fr.
David O’Rourke, conducted the program of Pastoral Training for our young priests.
The period of Leo’s life that was most fulfilling was his years in Tacoma, his
years in Salt Lake City, and his final years in Seattle. It was then that he came
more in touch with the charismatic movement, and his own prayer life grew in its personal
dimension and intensity. During that period, he told me, he learned a very great
deal from the faith of those with whom he worked.
All through our lives we are taught to respect, to honor, and to seek the intercession
of, the saints. The Church gives us many examples to look to, but it is good for us
to look to the sanctity we find right among our own people, those who have gone the
distance, carried the burden, and done it so well, so patiently.
Leo’s life as a Dominican was close to perfection. He was a scholar, an
academic, a pastoral priest in internal and external ministry. He knew how to live
in a large community, he knew how to live in smaller communities, he knew how to live
alone and then return to community, and at all times to be true, to be accurate, to be
theologically correct. He was a fine theologian, and a very careful analyst of
anything that was brought to his attention. At all times he was kind and charitable
and understanding. He was the Israelite in whom there is no guile. I miss him.
- Finbarr Hayes, O.P.
Date of Birth |
Date of Profession |
Date of Ordination |
Date of Death |
November 22, 1922 |
August 15, 1949 |
June 11, 1954 |
November 18, 1997 |
XII: 311 |
