A funeral Mass was held Aug. 11 in St. Petersburg, Fla., for Franciscan Brother Michael Madden. The Baltimore native and accomplished artisan died Aug. 4 after a brief illness. He was 91.
Born Dec. 13, 1933, to William and Grace (nee Manning) Madden. He was one of 11 children.
Brother Michael professed simple vows in the Order of Friars Minor, Holy Name Province, July 15, 1963, and solemn vows Aug. 22, 1966.
His ministry assignments took him to Rye Beach, N.H.; Washington, D.C.; St. Bonaventure, N.Y.; Brookline, Mass.; Silver Spring, Md.; and finally to St. Petersburg, Fla., where he had lived since 1986.
His formal ministry included cooking, caring for the sick and elderly friars, maintenance and craftsmanship. He maintained the friar houses in which he lived.
During his years at Holy Name College in Silver Spring, he made 150 solid oak chairs. The hand-turned chairs, each weighing approximately 26 pounds, took roughly six months to make. His love of craftmanship and maintenance began when he attended Samuel Gompers Vocational High School in Baltimore.
Before becoming a friar, he entered the Army after high school and was assigned to work on an anti-aircraft missile system, the Nike Project, in the 1950s. He was stationed in New Mexico. He returned home in 1958 to take an apprenticeship at Flynn and Emerick, a foundry in the Baltimore area, where he made the patterns for aerospace and medical devices, as well as other projects with which the firm was involved.
“I turned up on the lathe the first nose cone that was sent into space,” he told family members.
Brother Michael is survived by his sister, Catherine Plantholt, and sister-in-law, Alison Madden, as well as many nieces and nephews.
Read More Obituaries
Copyright © 2025 Catholic Review Media
