| Father Brian was born in Newark on June 21, 1930, the second of four children, (one girl and three boys) of Patrick and Catherine Clarke. He attended St. Peter’s Grammar School in the Clinton Hill section of Newark and then St. Benedict’s Prep School of Newark. He worked part-time while in high school for the Prudential Insurance Company. He attended St. Vincent College in Latrobe, P.A., for two years before entering the novitiate, and earned a B.A. in Philosophy. He then studied four years of Theology at St. Mary’s School of Theology in Morristown, N.J., while teaching Theology at Delbarton School.
After ordination to the priesthood in 1958, Fr. Brian was assigned to teach English at St. Benedict’s Prep School in Newark from 1958-1964, while assisting at St. Peter’s in Bellville and then for St. Michael’s in Cranford on weekends. In 1964, Fr. Brian was assigned to one of the Abbey parishes, St. Benedict’s in the Down Neck section of Newark for a year and then assigned to another Abbey parish, Sacred Heart in Wilmington, Delaware, for two years and also served as hospital chaplain.
Fr. Brian was appointed Novice Master for St. Mary’s Abbey in Morristown in 1967, while earning a M.A. degree in English Education. He was appointed Prior of St. Mary’s Abbey in 1972. From 1967 until 1975, he assisted on weekends at St. Joseph’s Parish in High Bridge, N.J. and helped the pastor with his duties as chaplain at the Annandale Reformatory.
Fr. Brian was elected Abbot of St. Mary’s Abbey in 1975, which serves as the president of Delbarton School. He continued in this role until 1995. He served as an assistant in the abbey parish in Cedar Knolls (Our Lady of Mount Carmel). Fr. Brian went on a year of sabbatical of studies in 1996 to Dublin, Ireland and Ein Karim, Israel and returned in 1997. He assisted at Christ the King in New Vernon (1997-1998) on weekends, while continuing to teaching at Delbarton. Father Brian joined St. James in Basking Ridge in 1998 and has consistently conducted mass each weekend to the present time. |
