Willard Capistrant

Willard Capistrant

I am a Roman Catholic and I am happy to be so. I was born into a Catholic family 100 years ago. I love the Mass and the sacraments. I pray the rosary daily and used to go to daily Mass, but now I watch Mass on TV. I was baptized at St. Mary of the Lake, White Bear Lake, by Father Fahey.  I received my first Communion at St. Mary’s also. I think I was confirmed at St. Augustine in South St. Paul.

While we were young, our mother saw to it that we went to church and she saw to it that we said the rosary once in a while. I was very happy to have met a young lady who was also a Catholic. My wife, Mary, and I were married at St. Mary of the Lake.

So many things happened at or by St. Mary’s. I was born on Jan. 17, 1922, in a maternity home almost one block from there.

In April 1943, I was drafted into the service at Fort Snelling. I was given the choice of military branches, so I chose the Navy. All the time I was given the opportunities to attend Masses, especially on Sundays. We had a Protestant chaplain, but he would see to it that we Catholics would be given a chance to offer prayers. While in ports, our ship was like a church, as a Catholic chaplain would raise our elevator to form an altar and chairs would be spread out in the hangar section for us and sailors from other ships to come to Mass.

My wife and I had eight children, four boys and four girls. All of our children went to grade school at St. John the Evangelist, Little Canada, under Msgr. (Arthur) Durrand. Seven of our children remained in the Catholic Church.

Capistrant, who turned 100 Jan. 17, is a parishioner of St. Peter in North St. Paul. He lives with his oldest son, Gary, and Gary’s wife, Claryce. He tries to pray the rosary every day and still attends Sunday Mass at St. Peter. His story is written as told to his daughter Anita Rosener.