Father Simon Brzozowski, MSF dies at 99

Father Simon Brzozowski, a priest with the Missionaries of the Holy Family (MSF), passed away on Monday, Feb. 6, 2023, at Padua Place in San Antonio.  He was 99 years old.

Father Brzozowski served in the Diocese of Corpus Christi from 1970–1995 with assignments at St. Joseph Parish in Corpus Christi, Our Lady of Victory in Beeville, and St. James Beeville.

The Funeral Mass is scheduled to take place at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023, at St. James Catholic Church in Gonzales, located at 417 N. College St., Gonzales, TX 78629.
 
Please keep Father Simon Brzozowski in your prayers and keep his family in your prayers as they cope with his loss. 
 
May Father Brzozowski rest in eternal peace.
 

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His Biography was published in the Summer 2014 issue of The Messenger, pg. 3, written by Jean Hrncirik, Sister of Father Simon Brzozowski, M.S.F. "Celebrating 50 years as a priest."

Father Father Brzozowski was born in Gonzales on Dec. 10, 1923. He was born along the banks of the Guadalupe River that wraps around what is known as Independence Park today. His parents, Simon Peter and Mary Ann (Wostal) Brzozowski, Sr., lived in a small house at the edge of the winding river.

Simon received his early education in local schools and graduated from Gonzales High School in the Class of 1940. The graduation ceremony for the 72 students was held in the Gonzales Museum Amphitheater.

During these same years, Simon received his religious upbringing in his home and at Saint James Catholic Church. According to Simon, the church was our classroom. He still remembers his catechism teachers, Mrs. William Cole and Mrs. Ray Shanklin. He was confirmed by Bishop Drossaerts of San Antonio, who brought the Confirmation class alive by asking, “Was Jesus born in Gonzales or San Antonio?”

After graduating from Gonzales High School, Simon attended Baldwin Business College in Yoakum, which seemed to have served him well for future duties. Our family remembers how his fingers could fly at the typewriter! His first job was at Kelly Field in San Antonio as a Messenger of Internal Mail, distributing technical orders on the base.

He was soon inducted into the Army Air Corps at Fort Sam Houston. He served a total of nine years in military service, as a clerk-typist and in Army Finance.

Simon was stationed in the jungles of New Guinea at General Douglas MacArthur’s South Pacific Operations. He recalls the dropping of the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. He remembers that terrible time and the breathless wait for surrender as his eyes were on the incoming teletype via the Army Airways Communication System.

Simon was also stationed in Nuremberg, Germany. In the company of his military chaplain Colonel Cate, a priest of the Camillian Fathers who cared for the sick, Simon was able to attend the Nuremberg War Criminal Trials held in Nuremberg’s Palace of Justice. The Four Allied Powers of the U.S.A., England, France, and Russia were represented, and testimony was given in different languages. Simon had seen the rubble and the effects of World War II, but he had also seen the work toward justice and peace.

Simon returned to the United States in 1948 to the Army Finance School for Military Instructors in Saint Louis. When the time came, he did not choose to re-enlist again, so Master Sergeant Simon P. Brzozowski, Jr. was honorably discharged in 1952.

On his way home to Texas, Simon attended a retreat at the Trappist Monastery in Gethsemane, Kentucky. He said he was struck by the immense work being done, the silence, and the contemplatives praying for the salvation of the world. During this time, the Lord was beginning to make it evident He wanted Simon to serve Him.

He then came home to visit his parents, who were now living at Bebe, and to become acquainted with his younger sisters and brother. He came home to a tremendous drought, hardship on the farm, and little funds from the family labor. Consequently, Simon worked for the City of Gonzales Public Works and proudly stated, “I got to repair some of our streets and curbs.”

Then a certain day came! Father Peter Roebrocks, M.S.F., pastor of Saint James in Gonzales, was called to be the rector of Holy Family Seminary in Saint Louis in 1957, with school beginning in September. Upon leaving Saint James, Father Pete said to Simon, “See you in September.” Simon said, “That was it! I knew the way I should go!”

Simon entered Holy Family Seminary and began seven years of study toward the priesthood: two years of college studies, including Church History; one year of philosophy; and four years of theology. In the latter part of his fourth year of theology, Father Simon Brzozowski, Jr. and 31 other candidates were ordained priests on Mar. 14, 1964, in the new Saint Louis Cathedral by Cardinal Joseph E. Ritter.

After ordination, Father Simon had a few more studies to complete, and then on Jun. 6, 1964, he returned to Texas to his hometown parish, Saint James in Gonzales, to celebrate his First Mass! He then returned to the Holy Family Seminary in Saint Louis to teach as a faculty member and assist at Saint Wenceslaus Church.

After that, Father Simon was the assistant pastor at Saint James in Gonzales and was assigned to serve Sacred Heart and Saint Patrick’s of Waelder. While in Gonzales, he also celebrated Masses at Warm Springs and the National Guard Armory.

He served in many other parishes in Texas, including New Braunfels, Beeville, Jourdanton, Helena, Charlotte, and Corpus Christi, where he was chaplain at Memorial Hospital, on call 24 hours a day and seven days a week for 12 years. Father Simon tells how they had to hurriedly move patients into the inner hallways of the hospital when the brutal hurricane Cecilia began blowing out the windows of Memorial Hospital in August 1970. While in Corpus Christi, he also served two nursing homes.

After this, Father Simon was assigned as chaplain for the Little Sisters of the Poor Nursing Home for eight years in Saint Louis. The Little Sisters of the Poor operate an eight-story, 250-bed facility for the sick and elderly. Father Simon described the chapel in this facility as large as the entire Saint James Catholic Church in Gonzales!

Then Father Simon was assigned to a smaller, 70-resident facility of the Little Sisters of the Poor in Louisville, Kentucky, while serving as a chaplain for a nearby hospital. He fondly recalls the great excitement in Louisville every year at Kentucky Derby time.

 A great part of Father Simon’s priesthood has been spent serving the sick and the elderly. Finally, needing a little respite, Father Simon moved to the Holy Family Formation House in San Antonio. After a short time there, Father Simon lived in the community and helped his brother priests care for the faithful of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Seguin. He is currently in residence at Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Donna, Texas, which is only 10 miles from the border of Mexico.

On Dec. 10, 2013, Father Simon celebrated his 90th birthday. On Mar. 15, 2014, the community of Saint Joseph Parish in Donna honored Father Simon for serving Jesus Christ and His Church as a priest for 50 years.

On Jun. 8, Pentecost Sunday, he went “home” to his hometown parish of Saint James in Gonzales to commemorate his 50th anniversary. He concelebrated Mass with the parish pastor, Father Paul Raaz; Father Alberto Treviño, M.S.F.; and the Very Rev. Philip Sosa, provincial superior of the Missionaries of the Holy Family.

“Are you retired?” someone asked Father Simon upon his 50th anniversary as a priest. He smiled warmly and replied, “No one is ever retired from the Lord’s work.”