F
r
. R
emigius
K
ozak
From page 6
“He had also gone there to visit the cathedral in Rhe-
ims because Bishop Remigius was the bishop of Rhe-
ims at that time. We stayed together that whole day and,
at night, we were walking up and down the Champs-
Elysées with Remigius in his habit. I said, ‘Remigius,
you can take off your habit,’ but he said no. He was
very obedient, but, yet, he’d find little ways of getting
around it. ”’
After two years of study at the Generalate of the
Cistercian Order in Rome, where he attended Interna-
tional Benedictine College of San Anselmo and Grego-
rian University, Father Remigius transferred to Canada
where he continued his theological studies at the Uni-
versity Seminary of St. Paul in Ottawa, Ontario, Can-
ada.
“We kept in constant contact,” Msgr. Mercier said.
“In his letters, he’d describe how he became enamored
of the police over there, especially the mounted police,”
Msgr. Mercier said.
“His love for horses began then. He used to collect
stamps. I had brought him a number of stamps from
the Vatican and from Monte Carlo commemorating the
wedding of Grace Kelly. He eventually stopped collect-
ing stamps because he became interested in horses.”
Born Albert Kozak on Aug. 12, 1927, in Morrell,
Pennsylvania, he later adopted the religious name of
Remigius (in honor of the aforementioned bishop of
Rheims) while attending St. Vincent Arch Abbey, the
Benedictine Monastery near Greensburg Pennsylvania.
He later left St. Vincent and joined the Cistercians.
He was ordained on May 29, 1954, at St. John Ca-
thedral in Milwaukee and stayed at the Cistercian mon-
astery in Wisconsin for a year-and-a-half before moving
to the Cistercian Monastery in Rose Hill, Mississippi,
in 1956.
Msgr. Mercier recalled visiting Father Remigius in
Paulding and persuading his brother priest to let him
ride one of his horses. That particular episode almost
didn’t end well.
“He put me on that horse and had that horse run all
the way around the field and come back in,” Msgr. Mer-
cier said. “When he came back in, I was trying to stop
it and had to lay down on the horse to come in under a
door. Father Remigius was over there looking at me and
laughing. I said, ‘Why didn’t you tell me that?’ He said,
‘I knew that you’d get through it.’ I visited him at the
monastery a number of times after that, but I didn’t ride
that horse again.”
Father Remigius was incardinated into the Diocese
of Natchez-Jackson on Nov. 1, 1974. As a priest of the
Diocese of Jackson, Father Remigius served as associ-
ate pastor, administrator and pastor of St. Michael Par-
ish, Paulding and its missions -- St. Anne, Newton and
Good Shepherd, Quitman. He also served as pastor of
St. Michael Parish, Paulding, and St. Anne Parish, Car-
thage.
In 1990, Father Remigius was named pastor of St.
Bernadette Parish, Waynesboro. He was incardinated
into the Diocese of Biloxi on July 1, 1993, and retired
from active ministry on Dec. 29, 1995. Father Remigius
spent many happy days in retirement at his home in Rose
Hill, which he called “The Hermitage,” before moving
into an assisted living facility due to poor health.
At Rose Hill, Father Remigius, who was an animal
lover, traded in his horses for a herd of cattle. He also
had lots of dogs and cats. On one of his visits to Rose
Hill, Msgr. Mercier recalled Father Remigius saying
how fortunate he was to have people to celebrate the
Mass for on a regular basis.
“He said, ‘When I say Mass, the only response I get
is Moo,” Msgr. Mercier said.
“He was really a country boy from the city. They
called him the ‘Cowboy priest.’”
Msgr. Mercier said that Father Remigius truly loved
his ministry, especially to the people in Paulding, where
he spent the bulk of his ministry. So it was only fitting
that his final resting place be in the Paulding Cemetery.
“He loved to say Mass,” Msgr. Mercier said.
“He wanted to say Mass for the people. He wanted
to offer the Mass for the people. He loved the Mass.
He loved the priesthood. He was just a priest and that’s
what he liked. He liked being a simple priest.”
Bishop Morin said that Father Remigius’ funeral
Mass, while a sad occasion, was also reason for cel-
ebration.
“Because of our faith, we celebrate,” he said. “We
celebrate the gift of life and, for the priests, we cele-
brate the great gift of vocations to the priesthood. Fa-
ther Remigius received that call and he freely chose to
answer that call. I think that, in his heart, he was blessed
with a very rich charism for a life of prayer. It was great
consolation to know that we had the abiding presence
of a man of deep spirituality and prayer in residence in
the Diocese of Biloxi.”
To include your parish and school events and activity
information in “Diocesan Briefs”, email that information
to:
Las Misas Celebradas en
Español/ Masses Celebrated in Spanish
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Pascagoula: Sacred Heart Parish, 6 pm
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Laurel: Immaculate Conception Parish, 4 pm
Hattiesburg: Sacred Heart Parish, 1:30 pm
Picayune: St. Charles Borromeo Parish, 1 pm
Gulfport: St. John the Evangelist Parish, 7:30 pm
Ocean Springs: St. Alphonsus Parish, 2 pm
Lunes/Monday
Biloxi: Our Lady of Fatima Parish, 6 pm
Lucedale: St. Lucy Parish, (First and third Monday of
the month), 6 pm
Gulf Pine Catholic
•
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