Note: Six priests of the Archdiocese of Baltimore will be retiring July 1. The Review profiles the six as their parishes bid them farewell. Click here to read more retirement profiles.
The legacy of Father Keith Boisvert is tangible, especially on the site of an old farm in Frederick County. After 45 years in the priesthood, Father Boisvert, the founding pastor of St. Katharine Drexel in Frederick, will retire in July 2024.
Entering into the priesthood was always in the mind of the Rhode Island native, who moved to Baltimore at age 6. It started with his involvement as an active young parishioner and student at St. Dominic in Baltimore, then at what is now Loyola Blakefield in Towson, which included altar serving and playing the organ.
Father Boisvert attended St. Mary’s College Seminary in Catonsville and St. Mary’s Seminary in Roland Park. After completing seminary, he was not completely sure of his vocation, so while his classmates were ordained, he asked to work in a parish first. After a few months of working at St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Highlandtown, he was ordained April 28, 1979.
He served as associate pastor of St. Pius X in Rodgers Forge, 1979-85, and St. Anthony in Baltimore, 1985-89; chaplain at Mount St. Mary’s University, Emmitsburg, 1989-96; a sabbatical in Rome, July-December 1996; administrator of St. Joseph in Hagerstown, 1997; and associate pastor of St. John in Frederick, 1998-2003, before officially becoming St. Katharine Drexel’s administrator, 2003-2007, and pastor, 2007-present.
The priest was sent to live at St. John in Frederick in the late 1990s with the mindset of creating a new parish. He set to work, learning about the growth projections for the city and researching surrounding parishes to see where he could fill a need.
Father Boisvert was told the school housed at St. John in downtown Frederick needed a new building on the site of the future parish before the new church, named St. Katharine Drexel, could be started.
Again, he got right to work, finding a piece of property off Opossumtown Pike and co-chairing the campaign that would raise money to build the school.
What was once a farm and a cow pasture now holds a school with 700 students and a parish with about 4,000 parishioners.
At the same time, less than a year after moving to Frederick, Father Boisvert started celebrating a satellite Mass in the Frederick Community College theater. That was only temporary until St. John Regional Catholic School opened its doors in 2005, with a gym designed to accommodate St. Katharine Drexel’s Masses, and so its parish offices could be inside the school.
Then it was time to focus on the church – a beautiful building filled with details that Father Boisvert knew would draw parishioners in for worship. The doors opened in 2016.
While designing the church, Father Boisvert was concurrently designing the parish’s operations.
“That’s been the exciting part for me: having the opportunity to form a faith community like that,” he said. “I think in the end, that’s my major life contribution – the 20 years I’ve put into leading that faith community to become, I think, rather vibrant.
“I’m happy to have been part of such an exciting project.”
Steve Heine, a corporator of the parish since its creation, was drawn to Father Boisvert by his warm and genuine nature, and his dry sense of humor.
“Father Keith lets you into his life,” Heine said. “His welcoming to us is exactly the culture he built in the parish.”
Heine will retire from his role, along with the other corporator, when Father Boisvert does.
“The church is just a structure,” he said. “What Father (Boisvert) was focused on was building this parish, this welcoming community.”
As a banker, Heine appreciates Father Boisvert’s business acumen.
“(He) is a skilled business professional and surrounds himself with other professionals, just as a good leader does,” Heine said. “That’s why God put him out here to do this. … He was sent to build something – to build a lot of things.”
Father Boisvert has one final project he plans to complete before retirement. The church’s property, once part of a farm, includes an acre with 24 graves from the 1800s.
He wanted to preserve the burial ground, and is making it happen. A memorial garden and cemetery is under construction.
Though he has no definite plans for retirement, besides a move to West Virginia, he plans to continue serving.
“It’s all God’s work and you just have to cooperate with God,” Father Boisvert said. “It gives me a sense of satisfaction knowing that I tried to use my abilities and my skills to serve God in that way.”
Though he said it can be challenging being a priest, it has been a “rather gratifying life.”
“You know that you touched a lot of people’s lives as a priest,” he said, adding that preaching is especially important to him. “The gratifying part is to know how influential your efforts have been.”
Father Keith Boisvert
Born: Oct. 5, 1952
Home Parish: St. Dominic, Baltimore
Seminary: St. Mary’s Seminary, Roland Park
Priestly ordination: April 28, 1979
Assignments: St. Pius X, Rodgers Forge (1979-85), associate pastor; St. Anthony, Baltimore (1985-89), associate pastor; Mount St. Mary’s University (1989-96); St. Joseph, Hagerstown (1996-98), Administrator; St. John the Evangelist, Frederick (1998-2003), associate pastor; St. Katharine Drexel, Frederick (2003-07), administrator; St. Katharine Drexel (2007-2024), pastor
Quote: “It’s all God’s work and you just have to cooperate with God. It gives me a sense of satisfaction knowing that I tried to use my abilities and my skills to serve God in that way.”
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