Fr. Brendan Helbing, O.S.B.

Father Brendan professed vows as a monk of St. Gregory’s Abbey on July 11, 1959, and was ordained to the priesthood on May 23, 1965.

Fr Brendan was born in Tulsa, OK, and spent most of his childhood in Oklahoma City. He came to St. Gregory’s as a high school student in 1953 and continued his education with two years of study at St. Gregory’s College. He completed a bachelor’s degree in philosophy at St. John’s University, in Collegeville, MN, and his seminary training at St. Gregory’s Abbey. Following ordination, Fr. Brendan completed a master’s degree in French at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, with additional study of Latin and Greek.

Fr. Brendan spent most of his monastic life in parish pastoral ministry in Oklahoma, California, in the Kansas City metropolitan area and as a full-time as a priest chaplain on the pastoral care team at St. John’s Hospital in Tulsa, OK.  Fluent in Spanish, Fr. Brendan has enjoyed pastoral ministry among those whose primary language is Spanish.  He is known for his gentle manner, his love for the poor and marginalized and for his carefully prepared homilies.