The Rev. Peregrin Jerome Berres was killed in a one-car accident in Maple Grove on Friday evening. He was 68.
He completed his first year of training as a monk at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minn., in 1950 and was ordained there in 1957. He has been associated with the school in various positions since 1973, said the Rev. Daniel Durken, Abbey publicist. Since 1988 Berres had served as a special-projects coordinator for the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library. His projects included cataloging 400,000 medieval manuscripts into CD-Rom format.
He also had served as an associate pastor for churches in Hastings, Detroit Lakes and St. Cloud.
Berres was a chaplain in the Army for three years during the Vietnam War. Later he taught religion at Benilde High School in St. Louis Park before going back to St. John’s.
“He had a remarkable variety of things that he did,” Durken said. “He was a creative, energetic and generous person.”
Berres was on his way to visit a sister and a brother in St. Paul when he lost control of his car on Interstate Hwy. 94 at the I-694 exit. The car left the road and struck a bridge pillar.
The State Patrol is investigating whether another car might have cut Berres off and forced him to lose control.
He is survived by five sisters and two brothers: Charlotte Berres of St. Paul; Sue Huff of Hot Springs, Ark.; Sister Caroline Berres of Bloomington; Rose Mary Goossens of West St. Paul; Annette Malone of Eau Claire, Wis.; Vincent Berres of St. Paul, and Paul Berres of Houston.
Visitation will be held at 7 p.m. Monday at St. John’s Abbey. Services will be held there at 3 p.m. Tuesday.
— Andrew Tellijohn
April 17, 1999
Obituary: the Rev. Peregrin Berres of St. John’s Abbey
http://www.startribune.com/templates/Print_This_Story?sid=11599276
