Eternal rest grant unto him Fat h e r A lb e r t Ha u se r, O S B
Born • October 26, 1933 Professed • July 11, 1954 Ordained • May 26, 1960 Died • May 19, 2019 Story from The Leaven by Joe Bollig - Theleaven.org The monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey here take three vows: obedience, conversion and stability. The last one – stability – means a monk is committed to live in one community only, his spiritual home as long as he lives. As a monk Father Albert Hauser, OSB, took those vows and kept them, but with a caveat. Because he accepted pastoral assignments, he hadn’t lived at the monastery for nearly 50 years, although he remained a monk of the abbey. “He talked a lot about the vow of stability,” said Kathy Buessing, an organist at St. Michael Parish in Axtell. “He said, ‘I’m the most unstable of stable monks. Stability has not been a part of my life all these years.’” Father Albert, 85, returned to St. Benedict’s Abbey to spend the remaining days of his life, dying peacefully on May 19. It was his final act of stability. He was born Robert Anthony Hauser on Oct. 26, 1933, one of the five children of Joseph and Bernice (Krabbe) Hauser of Burlington, Iowa. The family belonged to St. John the Baptist Parish, and the pastors were Benedictine monks from Atchison. He attended St. John Grade School and graduated from Burlington Catholic High School in May 1951. The Benedictine influence led him to enroll in St. Benedict’s College (now Benedictine College) in Atchison. After two years of studies, he entered the novitiate of the abbey in 1953, and took the monastic name Albert. He professed his first vows on July 11, 1954, and graduated with a bachelor’s
degree in philosophy in May 1957. Brother Albert professed solemn vows on July 11, 1957. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 26, 1960, by Archbishop Edward Hunkeler at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Kansas City, Kansas, then continued his studies at Conception Seminary in Conception, Missouri, during the summers of 1960 and 1961. Father Albert served as vocation director of the abbey from 1960 to 1964. He worked in the admissions office of St. Benedict’s College in 1964, then was registrar from 1964 to 1968. Additionally, he was the college admissions office director from 1965 to 1970. In 1970, Father Albert accepted his first parish assignment as pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Atchison, and became the selfstyled “most unstable of stable monks.” For the next 49 years he served as a pastor, offering the sacraments to the faithful of Northeast Kansas. Father Blaine Schultz, OSB, remembered how he and Father Albert went to college, entered the monastery, studied theology and were ordained together. “He was wonderful, fun-loving,” said Father Blaine. “I never heard a bad thing out of his mouth by way of criticism. He enjoyed sports and was a good athlete, the best athlete on the team.” Once Father Albert began taking parish assignments, they didn’t see much of each other, but Father Albert would occasionally return to the abbey and spend a couple of days.
Had you asked him in 1969, Fr. Albert would have told you he planned to spend his life working in higher education. An unexpected need led to him starting a temporary parish assignment – he fell in love with the ministry spending the next 50 years providing the sacramnets to the people of Northeast Kansas, from Overland Park to Axtell. 10
S t. B e n e d i c t ’ s A b b e y
