Monsignor Francis G. Kazista, Pastor Emeritus, who served our parish well from September 12, 1987 to July 5, 2011, died on November 2, 2020, the Feast of All Souls. He was 84 years old and was living in retirement at Grace House, Silver Spring, Maryland.

Monsignor Kazista was born on March 31, 1936 in Old Forge, Pennsylvania. He attended Penn State University in University Park, Pennsylvania and the University of Scranton in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He attended Saint Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland, in preparation for his ordination as a priest of the Society of Saint Sulpice in the Diocese of Scranton on May 28, 1966. He was incardinated into the Archdiocese of Washington on November 16, 1979.

He served as a summer associate at Holy Spirit Parish in Forestville, Maryland from 1966-1969, and then as a Parochial Vicar from 1969-1975. After continuing studies in Washington, DC and Paris, France from 1969- 1975, he served as a faculty member at Saint Mary’s School of Theology in Baltimore, Maryland from 1973- 1975. In 1975, he was named Parochial Vicar at Mount Calvary Parish in Forestville, Maryland, at Saint John the Baptist Parish in Silver Spring, Maryland in 1976 and at Saint Hugh Parish in Greenbelt, Maryland, in 1981. He was named Pastor of Saint James Parish in Mount Rainier, Maryland in 1984, and of Saint John the Baptist Parish in Silver Spring, Maryland in 1987, where he served until his retirement in 2011. He was in residence at Saint Andrew the Apostle Parish in Silver Spring, Maryland from 2011-2015, and at Resurrection Parish in Burtonsville, Maryland from 2015-2018. He had been a resident of Grace House, Silver Spring, Maryland, since September 2018.

Monsignor Kazista served in the United States Army From 1955-1958, as a member of the Society of Saint Sulpice from 1966-1975, as Dean of the Upper Prince George’s County Deanery from 1984-1987, as Chaplain of the Knights of Columbus Saint John Council 11106 from 1997 to 2011, and as Dean of the Lower Montgomery County Deanery in 2002. He was named a Monsignor in 2006.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let your perpetual light shine upon him.
May he rest in your peace. Amen.