Oldest Assumptionist priest, Father Oliver Blanchette, dies at 104

The oldest Assumptionist in the world, beloved by many in the Worcester Diocese, and missionary to Africa in his 80s, died Monday. Father Oliver Blanchette, 104, died at Notre Dame Long Term Care Center in Worcester after a period of declining health.
“Father Oliver didn’t just live a long life,” commented Assumptionist Father John L. Franck, a former assistant general of the Assumptionists, who now serves at St. Anne and St. Patrick Parish in Sturbridge.  “He was a man of great wisdom … experience … foresight … support and an apostle. … I can’t tell you how much he’s going to be missed by so many people.”
Ever since Father Blanchette returned from Africa, at the age of 90, he’s been raising money for Assumptionist projects there, Father Franck said.
He said Father Blanchette was so lucid that, a month before he died, he was giving Dr. Frederick Bayon, chairman emeritus of Assumption College’s board of trustees, instructions on how to run the college. Father Blanchette told him, in effect, “You have the ear of the president. Tell him he’s doing a great job and here’s some more advice...”
“I went to Africa when I was 83,” Father Blanchette told The Catholic Free Press for a story marking his 100th birthday in 2016. “I came back when I was 90.  
Father Blanchette said he’d always had a little desire to go to the missions and was sent to be present to the younger people, partly to inspire aspiring and new Assumptionists. He was an English teacher and spiritual director, serving from 1999 to 2007 in Nairobi, Kenya, and Arusha, Tanzania. People here formed Friends of Father Oliver to help fund his projects there.
But he called his years as associate pastor of St. Anne and St. Patrick Parish in Sturbridge, which the Augustinians of the Assumption staff, his most meaningful assignment.
He also served in a variety of other Assumptionist ministries, as well as being a leader in the Cursillo movement in the Worcester Diocese, helping the diocese with the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, joining diocesan priests in the Emmaus spiritual support group and reaching out ecumenically.
He was born in Springfield on March 12, 1916, the only child of Armand and Olive (Gahan) Blanchette. His mother died when he was 7 years old and his step-mother, Rhea (Fugerem) Blanchette, helped raise him. 
 “As a young boy I seemed to have a call,” he told The Catholic Free Press. “I tried to stifle it as a teenager.”
He attended Technical High School in Springfield and graduated from Assumption Preparatory School in 1934. A relative convinced him and his family that the Springfield college he wanted to attend was “pink,” having Communist leanings, he said.
“OK, I’ll go to Assumption, but they better not try to make a priest of me,” he declared.
“But by the second year I chose to become an Assumptionist on my own,” he recalled. “I was afraid to lose my soul to the world … if I didn’t become a priest.” (At age 100, he said his reason for being a priest was to serve the Lord and his kingdom.)
Father Blanchette was awarded a bachelor’s degree from Assumption College in 1937 and studied philosophy there from 1937 to 1938. He studied theology at the Seminary of Quebec at Laval University from 1941 to 1945, and received his licentiate in sacred theology. This was followed by graduate study from 1946 to 1947.
He made his first profession on Oct. 2, 1940 in Canada and was ordained to the priesthood on June 16, 1944, by Cardinal Jean-Marie-Rodrigue Villeneuve in Quebec.
Father Blanchette began his ministry by teaching philosophy, education and religion at Assumption Preparatory School from 1947 to 1956. He was sub-prior and master of scholastics there from 1947 to 1954 and superior of the community from 1956 to 1962.
He then became the regional superior and master of novices at the Montmartre Community in Quebec for one year, then superior in Saugerties, New York, from 1964 to 1967. The next year he was master of novices in Dedham and assistant provincial.
Father Blanchette returned to Assumption Prep as superior of the community from 1968 to 1970.
From 1971 to 1977 he was a spiritual director at the John XXIII Center in Cassadaga, New York.
He served in the Assumptionist community at 246 Salisbury St. in Worcester from 1977 to 1980 and was superior for one year. Then he became assistant pastor at St. Anne and St. Patrick Parish in Sturbridge, serving there until 1999, when he went to Africa.
In his retirement he worked with the Lay-Religious Alliance of the Assumptionists through the internet for another 12 years.
 In his younger years he enjoyed playing hockey and tennis. More recently, he enjoyed studying Church matters, pastoral and spiritual works.
Besides his Assumptionist community, he leaves three cousins: Jeanne Sears of Baltimore, Maryland; John H. “Jack” Connelly and his wife, Denise Brait, of Salem, and Francis Blanchette of West Haven, Connecticut, and several second cousins, including Sheila Connelly and her husband, Ping Yip, of Salem, who took special care of him.
His funeral will be held privately with burial in the Assumptionists’ section of St. Anne’s Cemetery, Sturbridge. A public memorial Mass will be held at a later date.
Donations in his name may be made to The Assumptionist Retirement Fund, c/o Assumptionist Center, 330 Market St., Brighton, MA 02135. Sitkowski, Malboeuf & Hickey Funeral Home of Webster handled arrangements.