Father Francis J. Daubert, Mm

Maryknoll Mission Archives
March 17, 2016

http://maryknollmissionarchives.org/?deceased-fathers-bro=father-francis-j-daubert-mm

Francis

On Pentecost Sunday, the 22nd of May, while all of us were praying to the Father to send the Spirit into our lives,Father Francis Joseph Daubert received the gift of the Spirit as he became one with the Risen Christ.

On May 18th, Father Daubert entered Phelps Memorial Hospital for an operation on his eyes. His condition deteriorated after treatment and at 6:00 a.m.,on the morning of May 22nd, Father Daubert died at the age of 71.

Francis Daubert, the youngest of eight children, was born in Philadelphia on April 1, 1912 to John Daubert and Dorothy Lucas. His early schooling took place in Philadelphia and after finishing three years of high school at Northeast Catholic High,he entered the Venard in September of 1928.

From an early age Frank had the desire to enter the priesthood, being very much influenced by a nun in his seventh year of grammar school. He was undecided whether to become a diocesan or a religious priest. Two Maryknoll Sisters spoke to his eighth grade and because of this he subscribed to Maryknoll Junior and later to The Field Afar?. Father John Dever encouraged in him a vocation to the foreign missions, but it was not until he read A Modern Martyr?, a life of Blessed Theophane Venard, that he decided to enter Maryknoll.

On June 14, 1938, Father Daubert was ordained and his first mission assignment was to Kweilin, China. In 1945 he briefly served on the Venard Faculty and then returned to China.In 1950 he was assigned to Formosa and in December of the same year was confined to a compound at Laipo by the Communists. Released in June, 1951, he returned to the U.S. to teach at the Venard until April, 1955, when he was once more assigned to Formosa. Five years later he left Formosa for Hawaii where he remained until 1967 when he returned to the States to help out at Transfiguration Parish in lower Manhattan. In 1968 he was assigned as Chaplain to the Maryknoll Sisters’ Novitiate in Valley Park,Missouri. In December, 1971, he became Chaplain to Phelps Memorial Hospital. This latter position he left only a short time ago to reside at St. Teresa’s Residence. In June, 1979, he was assigned to the Special Society Unit.

While Father Daubert was in China he became a good student of the Mandarin language and compiled a Catholic Hymnal in Mandarin and English. During his missionary life he was always very friendly, cooperative and never hesitated to perform the tasks required of him. He judged events with a critical eye and thus he was capable of summing up the situations in which he found himself.

The Wake Service was held on Tuesday evening, the 24th, with Father Thomas McDermott officiating and Biography being read by Father Joseph Lang. Mass of Christian Burial took place the following morning with Principal Celebrant Father Edward Manning and Homily by Father J. Ryan Hughes, and burial followed in the Maryknoll Cemetery; Father James Weckesser conducting the graveside service.