Father Stan Frytek served Coquitlam francophone community for 26 years
By Agnieszka Krawczynski
The B.C. Catholic

A Franciscan friar who spent 63 years serving parishes across Western Canada has died at age 101.

Father Stanley Frytek, OFM, was born in Alberta in 1915, ordained in 1945, and then spent most of his life as a congenial, energetic, and outdoorsy pastor.

“He liked to run a parish,” said Father Kevin Lynch, a fellow Franciscan.

“He was a pastor until he was 92 years old. He was probably the oldest pastor in Canada at the time; at least he used to say that.”

Father Frytek was born to Polish immigrants in Bankhead, Alta., a coal-mining town near Banff that’s now no more than a ghost town. He was the first of 12 children.

After the mine closed, his family moved to Merritt, where he and his father worked as coal miners. At 22 years of age, Father Frytek decided to join the friars. In those days it was considered a late vocation, Father Lynch said.

The young Franciscan spent years in formation in Quebec and was ordained at 30 in June 1945. He preached his first sermon in St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Victoria, and went on to serve in many parishes and missions, many of them bilingual and many of them in Western Canada.

He spent a year serving in Lac du Connet, Man., and then more than six years in Red Lake, Ont., areas both abundant with hunting and fishing opportunities.

He was a pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Edmonton for six years, then at St. Charles in Winnipeg for 17 years. His longest stay as a pastor was 26 years at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Coquitlam.

The majority of his parishioners at the time were francophone. Father Frytek was fluent in Polish and English; he had picked up French while studying in Quebec. He worked hard to reach out to his parishioners in their native languages.

“One thing I really appreciated, because I am francophone, is he always made sure people knew he was francophone, and one Mass was always in French,” said Suzanne Tkach, a long-time parishioner at Our Lady of Lourdes.

“His French was really good. It was very inspiring to me.”

Father Frytek retired in 2008 at age 92, and moved to Victoria. He kept in touch with Tkach and other parishioners, considering Greater Vancouver his home.

He did not leave his passion for the outdoors behind. Father Lynch said Father Frytek enjoyed fishing and hunting big game.

“I think when he was 95, he went out hunting and got a moose,” said Father Lynch. “His eyesight was really good.” Father Frytek kept his driver’s licence until he was 98.

Father Lynch also remembers him as a generous man. “Franciscans have a vow of poverty, but he always had a little extra change that he would give to anybody who came along.”

Father Frytek died peacefully at the Franciscan friary in Victoria July 21, after celebrating 101 years of life and 71 years of priesthood.

The funeral Mass was held at his “home parish” of Our Lady of Lourdes July 27.