After spending a year as a novice and three years in temporary vows, Brother Cassian Edwards, O.S.B., of Metairie, Louisiana, professed solemn vows, or vows for life, on July 11 at Saint Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, before Archabbot Douglas R. Nowicki, O.S.B.

Brother Cassian (Lamar) Edwards, O.S.B., is the son of Angela Gonzalez of Metairie, Louisiana and the late Walton Lamar Edwards III. He is a 2007 graduate of Archbishop Rummel High School. He graduated from Our Lady of the Holy Cross College in 2011 with a bachelor of arts degree in theology. He has also done a graduate course at Notre Dame Seminary, Louisiana. He began studies at Saint Vincent Seminary in 2016.

He entered the novitiate of Saint Vincent Archabbey on July 1, 2015 and made simple profession of vows on July 10, 2016 and solemn profession of vows on July 11, 2019.

Prior to coming to Saint Vincent, he spent a year working in Louisiana as a youth minister. He began attending weeklong seminars at the Theology of the Body Institute in Exton, Pennsylvania. He enrolled in a certification program for Saint John Paul II’s teachings and began working with missionary groups known as “Generation Life” and the “Culture Project” to spread the message of the Theology of the Body.

Following profession, he was assigned as assistant to the director of Campus Ministry, Saint Vincent College (2016-present), and a Benedictine resident in Bonaventure Hall (2016-present).