Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana Archives

Dom Francis Hilary Bacon

Dom Francis Hilary Bacon (originally named Trevor Wilbur Bacon) was born on 2 October 1903 in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, the son of Alfred Taylor and Beatrice (Bailey) Bacon. Little is known about his educational background, but in 1930 he was working as an artist in Los Angeles. In 1935 he decided to become a Benedictine monk and traveled to Nashdom Abbey in England for study. He took the name Francis Hilary in 1937 and made junior vows in 1938. He returned to the United States in 1939, settling in Valparaiso, Indiana, where, with Dom Paul Severance, he established St. Gregory's House. They were joined by two others, Dom Leo Patterson and Dom Meinrad Black, but both would leave in 1941. Bishop Campbell Gray assigned Bacon to St. Augustine's Gary and St. Stephen's Hobart, sharing duties with Severance, who also had charge of St. Andrew's in Valparaiso. Bacon was a gifted artist and wood carver. He created paintings, carvings, and mosaics that were displayed in many Midwestern churches. He and Severance left Indiana in 1946 and established St. Gregory's Priory in St. Joseph County, Michigan. Severance was its first prior, but after he became ill, Bacon was the de facto prior from 1947 to 1949, when he was replaced by Dom Patrick Dalton. He continued to work inthe monastery until crippled by illness. He died in Centreville, Michigan, on 4 September 1967.



 

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