Brother Paul Chase, C.PP.S., was a familiar figure around St. Charles Center in Carthagena, Ohio, in the United States. He spent his entire 56 years of religious life in ministry there.

His daily routine included caring for his chickens in the barn behind the main building. He sold eggs to St. Charles’ neighbors and others who traveled for miles to get them. Brother Paul raised special varieties of chickens and turkeys for people who exhibit them at poultry shows, and for those raise chickens in their backyard. 

In the afternoons, Brother Paul would patrol the grounds, picking up trash, sticks and other debris, his faithful cat named Dog running alongside the motorized cart he had to use in later years.

He was faithful to his calling and a great friend to many in the towns surrounding St. Charles. So when he died on March 30, 2023, after an illness of several months, they came to pay their respects and tell stories about their friend, Brother Paul.

He was born on December 9. 1945 in Fairbank, Iowa, to a farm family. He entered the Congregation at Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Ind., in 1965 and was professed on August 15, 1966.

He loved his life on the farm at St. Charles; he joined the Congregation in part because “they had cows,” he once said. (St. Charles was famous for its Brown Swiss dairy herd in those years.) He saw livestock and his poultry flocks as part of God’s creation, worthy of the best care he could give them. He never stopped learning about them, studying their ways.

A Mass of Christian Burial was held in Assumption Chapel at St. Charles Center on April 4, with Fr. Jeffrey Kirch, C.PP.S., provincial director, presiding. Fr. Matthew Keller, C.PP.S., was the homilist. (Fr. Keller grew up near St. Charles and when he was considering a religious vocation, he and his younger brothers worked for Brother Paul on the St. Charles Farm.)

Burial followed in the Community Cemetery. May he rest in peace.