Franciscan Father Joachim Giermek, 118th successor of St. Francis of Assisi, dies at 80 in Ellicott City

Father Joachim Anthony Giermek, only the third Friar from the United States to serve as minister general of the Conventual Franciscans, died Jan. 5 in Ellicott City. The member of the Franciscan Friars of Our Lady of the Angels Province and former teacher at Archbishop Curley High School in Northeast Baltimore was 80. 

A funeral Mass for the Buffalo, N.Y., native will be held Jan. 13, 9:30 a.m., at the Shrine of St. Anthony in Ellicott City. A viewing will be held Jan. 12, 4-7 p.m., with a wake service at 7 p.m. at the shrine.

In 1982, Father Giermek was elected secretary and regent of studies of the then-St. Anthony of Padua Province. In 1983, he was elected the assistant general of the Conventual Franciscan Order, representing the friars from the English-speaking jurisdictions. He served in that capacity until 1995 when he was elected vicar general. In 2001, Father Giermek was elected the 118th successor of St. Francis of Assisi, becoming the third friar from the United States to serve as minister general of the order.

Returning home from Rome in 2007, Fr. Joachim moved to Ellicott City where he was assigned until his death.

He entered the novitiate of the Conventual Franciscans in Ellicott City, professing simple vows in 1961 and was ordained in the Basilica of the Twelve Apostles in Rome in 1969. He served as professor of philosophy and then associate director of clerics at St. Hyacinth Seminary in Granby, Mass., 1970-76. He earned his master’s in Franciscan spirituality from St. Bonaventure University in Olean N.Y., a degree he used both as an instructor at St. Bonaventure and for a Franciscan retreat ministry.

Father Giermek was the son of the late Joseph and Mary (nee Kowalczyk) Giermek. His sister, Anne Holmes, and brother, Stanley, predeceased him. 

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