Rest in Peace, Fr. Germain Leo Fritz, O.S.B.

Fr. Benet Caffrey, O.S.B.

Posted April 3

Fr. Germain Fritz, OSB, in 1961.

Fr. Germain leading one of the many musical groups he conducted.

Germain with The Townsmen, a popular group on and off campus in the mid 60s.

Fr. Germain will be remembered for his boundless energy and friendly, generous nature.

The Baroque Ensemble including Fr. Germain and the late Dr. Roy Horton(on the top step). He and Germain transformed the music program at Delbarton.

Many young people benefited from Fr. Germain's gentle, learned instruction in the violin.

Later in life Fr. Germain remained a favorite in the classroom. Fond memories of his popular film class will bring a smile to many Delbarton alumni.

R.I.P. Fr. Germain Fritz. You will be missed.

St. Mary’s Abbey and Delbarton School mourn the death of Fr. Germain Leo Fritz, OSB on Friday, 3 April at 4:45 AM in the St. Mary’s Abbey Health Care Facility.

Leo Fritz was born in Orange, New Jersey in 1934, the son of the late Leo and Isabel Smith Fritz. Leo had a Benedictine influence from an early age, attending St. Joseph Church in Maplewood, New Jersey, then administered by the monks of St. Mary’s Abbey, and the parochial school conducted by Benedictine sisters. It was natural that he would attend St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, New Jersey. There he was strongly influenced by monks such as the late Father Martin Burne and Eugene Schwartz who encouraged his musical talent and his vocation. Upon graduation from St. Benedict’s in 1952 he continued his education at St. Vincent’s College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, receiving the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1957. He later attended the Manhattan School of Music and obtained the Master’s degree in music from New York University in 1967.

Father Germain entered the monastic novitiate in 1954 at St. Benedict’s Abbey in Atchison Kansas and there professed his first vows as a Benedictine monk on 11 July 1955. Theological studies followed at St. Mary’s School of Theology in Morristown and on 27 May 1961 Father Germain was ordained to the priesthood.

Fr. Germain began his long, distinguished, and varied career at Delbarton School in 1959 teaching History. He continued for several years thereafter in the Latin classroom. Meanwhile Father Germain was beginning his extraordinary contribution to the musical life of Delbarton as director of the Glee Club. Subsequent years saw him adding the directorships of the Gregorian Club, and the Octet. In 1963 the Trio made its first appearance, harbinger of the famous folk group, the Townsmen who entertained on and off campus through the mid 1960s. Meanwhile, the indefatigable and versatile Farther Germain introduced others of his interests to Delbarton School: the bowling club and the model train club. From his youth he had loved and studied trains and during his college days at St. Vincent would regard as a jolly excursion a visit to the Million Dollar Cut near St. Vincent or to the Horseshoe Curve on the Pennsylvania Railroad outside of Altoona.

But Father Germain’s passion remained music in all its forms, in the classroom and out. For some years he chaired the music department at Delbarton and assembled a cadre of adjunct teachers of various instruments to benefit the students of Delbarton and of other local schools. When the late Dr. Roy Horton joined the faculty in 1969 there began a collaboration that would bear much fruit. Their first project was the Delbarton Baroque Ensemble in which Father Germain played the violin and Roy the harpsichord. This group made numerous concert appearances on and off campus including a concert at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York in 1973. At the same time Father Germain was dedicating himself to the training of young string players, giving lessons to countless young girls and boys, in season and out. The confreres occasionally joked about the squeaks produced by some of his students but Father Germain’s patience and encouragement were boundless.

The result was the Abbey Orchestra begun in 1971 for the purpose of giving Delbarton students and other young and adult musicians from the area, an opportunity to learn from one another and to play great orchestral music. The Intermediate Orchestra for younger students followed and both of these ensembles have continued to grown in size, quality and prestige largely due to Father Germain’s leadership and tireless energy. In the early years of the Orchestra, Father Germain would often act as Concert Master but, as fine young violinists came to the ensemble, he placed himself among the back chairs in a supporting role. This was typical of his magnanimity. These orchestral programs were never about him, although his single minded pursuit of his goals at times might have given a different impression. In March of 2008, in his final appearance in an Abbey Orchestra concert, Father Germain fulfilled a dream that combined two of his passions, music and Civil War era history, by narrating the stirring words of Lincoln that accompany Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait. The performance was meant as a tribute to Father Germain by the members of the Abbey Orchestra.

Father Germain’s life as a priest was most precious to him. He began his career as a weekend assistant at St. Christopher’s Church in Parsippany, New Jersey, but it was at St. Benedict’s Church in Holmdel that he will be most remembered. Every Saturday for over 30 years he took the long trip on the Parkway, dropping off Fathers Michael Collins and Leo Beger on the way, arriving at the parish in time to hear confessions and preside at the evening Mass. At St. Benedict’s he is remembered for his down-to-earth homilies, always making his point with a Charley Brown cartoon. True to form, not only did he minister to the community as a priest but initiated a very popular Saturday Night at the Movies program. (By now, one of his enthusiasms had become film and film music through which he sought to reach his students.) In between there were the violin lessons at the parish. “Have violin, will travel” became the community jest. Father Germain with his boundless joy and enthusiasm made a lasting contribution and many friends in Holmdel. The last years of his priestly ministry, from 1999 until 2005, were spent at St. Joseph’s Parish in Mendham where he continued to exude his enthusiasm for the Gospel, for music, and for life, this time a little closer to home.

For many years since the retirement of Father Martin Burne, Father Germain served as Choir Master for the worship services of the community of St. Mary’s Abbey. He will live on in his music for much of what we sing is of his composition.

The competition is keen, but Father Germain was certainly among the most widely read members of the community. His habit was to rise early and read for several hours before Lauds in the morning, unfortunately, underlineing something on every page. His reading reflected his wide ranging interests in history, things English and in the works of the Fathers of the Church into which he deeply immersed himself.

He is survived by his sisters Isabel Garrity of Rutledge, Pennsylvania, Sister Germaine Fritz, O.S.B, of St. Walburga’s Monastery, Elizabeth, New Jersey, and Mrs. Jocelyn Collins of Ewing Township, New Jersey.

Father Germain’s body will be received at the Abbey Church in Morristown on Monday 6 April at 4:30. Visiting Hours at the Abbey Church will be on Monday, 6 April from 7:00 to 9:00 and on Tuesday 9, April from 2:00 to 4:00 and 7:00 to 9:00. The Office of the Dead will be sung at 7:15 PM on Tuesday, 7 April and the Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 3:30PM in the Abbey Church on Wednesday, 8 April followed by interment in the Abbey Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St. Mary’s Abbey Infirmary Fund.

Arrangements are by the Dangler Funeral Home, Summit, NJ.