Capuchin Father Michael Suchnicki dies Feb. 20 at age 86

DENVER. Capuchin Father Michael Suchnicki died Feb. 20 at age 86. Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Feb. 28 at St. Bernadette Parish in Lakewood. Burial followed at Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery in Wheat Ridge.

Born Edward Suchnicki in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 26, 1938, he graduated from St. Joseph High School and worked as a theater actor for four years before entering the Capuchin Brothers Training Center in Cumberland, Maryland.

Under the new religious name, Brother Michael was invested as a novice at Annapolis, Md., and on Feb. 22, 1962, made his first profession of vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Following three more years of training in Cumberland and a year of fraternal service to the community in Pittsburgh, he was assigned to the faculty of St. Joseph’s Military Academy in Hays, Kansas, which a few years later was reorganized as Thomas More Prep, a college preparatory school with Christian leadership training.

During his 15 years there, Brother Michael served in a wide variety of tasks at the school and a neighboring Capuchin parish, such as admissions efforts, student life counselor, infirmarian, assistant librarian, grounds supervisions, and teaching catechism in the parish grade school.

  Further vocational discernment helped Brother Michael realize that he was called to the priesthood. In 1982, at the age of 44, he enrolled at Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut. After 28 years as a lay brother, he was ordained a priest on April 29, 1988, at Ellis, Kansas.

He came to Colorado in 1993 as associate director and chaplain of Samaritan House in Denver.  He also served as a confessor for several parishes in the Archdiocese of Denver as well as at the Catholic Center in the Citadel Mall in Colorado Springs.  His final assignment was in 2023 as chaplain of the Kateri Native American community at St. Bernadette Parish in Lakewood.

 In his 24 years at Samaritan House, Michael was an untiring advocate for homeless men, women and children who came to the shelter in dire need. He raised funds and wrote countless letters to newspapers asking for everything from heavy coats to diapers and turkeys.

Memorials are suggested to the Capuchin Province of St. Conrad, www.capuchins.org.