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Community Welcomes Nine Novices July 1

Several men will spend a year of discernment as novices with the Saint Vincent monastic community, beginning July 1. They are Ryan Coyne of Cleveland, Ohio; Hal Cline of Concord, North Carolina; Francis Jin Yuan of Shanghai Province, China; Luke Chien-Pang Hsu of Taiwan; Eric Michael Larsen of League City, Texas; Lamar Edwards of Metairie, Louisiana; Mike O’Reilly of Johnstown and Evan Bernard Neely of Franklin, Pennsylvania.

All of the men have had extensive contact with the Archabbey’s vocation office and had the opportunity to visit Saint Vincent on numerous occasions in order to get to know the community during their discernment process.

WILLIAM (RYAN) COYNE

William (Ryan) Coyne of Cleveland is the son of Richard and Angela Coyne. The oldest of three brothers, he is a 2014 graduate of Saint Vincent College, with degrees in theology and philosophy. He has done graduate studies in theology at Boston College. While at Saint Vincent he participated in a number of mission trips, including to Managua, Nicaragua; Rome and Vatican City; Kolkata, India and São Paulo, Brazil.

BERNARD (HAL) CLINE

Bernard (Hal) Cline has spent time as a postulant at Saint Vincent prior to entering the novitiate. The son of Mary Anna and the late Harold Cline, he has a sister, Anne, and a brother, Ray. For the past decade he has been a self-employed mortgage settlement signing agent and official notary with Merchants Bonding Company. He graduated in 1982 from the University of North Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. He was a classical repertory actor specializing in early Greek drama, and performed Shakespeare. Initially He entered the Reformed Theological Seminary, Florida in 1992 and studied there till 1995. The Seminary employed him to develop its newly formed distance learning department. In his studies, he conducted a research project on John Calvin’s Institutes of Christian Religion and was stunned that Calvin quoted a Catholic monk named Bernard. He visited Gethsemane Monastery to learn more about the Catholic Church, The Holy Rule and Saints Benedict and Bernard, and converted to Catholicism in 2012.

FRANCIS JIN YUAN

Francis Yuan Jin, a native of Xi’an, Shanghai Province, China, is the son of Wuxing Jim and Xuezhen Li. One of five children, he earned a bachelor of engineering degree in electrical engineering and automation from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an in 2009. His granduncle, Peter Boyu Li, graduated from Fu Jen Catholic University in Beijing, which was established by Saint Vincent in the 1920s, and later became bishop of the Zhouzhi Diocese. He has studied philosophy at Shanghai Sheshan Seminary.

LUKE CHIEN-PANG HSU

A native of Taiwan, Luke Chien-Pang Hsu studied at National Chung Cheng University in Chiavi. He graduated with a degree in philosophy in 2006. After college, he fulfilled the military obligations of his country by joining the Substitute Military Service, from which he retired in 2007. He went back to school to study at the Institute of Taiwanese Literature at National Chengchi University, receiving a master’s degree in Taiwanese Literature in 2014.

GILES ERIC LARSEN

Giles (Eric) Larsen is the son of David and Janet Larsen, and has a younger brother, Christopher. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in music studies from Saint John’s University in Collegeville, in 2013. He graduated from the University of Saint Thomas in Houston, with a master of arts degree in faith and culture in 2015. He has studied in Rome, London, and Istanbul. He has also been active as a volunteer for Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Houston.

CASSIAN (LAMAR) EDWARDS

Cassian (Lamar) Edwards is the son of Marie Gonzalez and the late Walton Edwards. He has one brother, Irving Gonzalez. He graduated from Archbishop Rummel High School, an all boys Catholic school, in 2007. He graduated with a bachelor of arts in theology from Our Lady of Holy Cross College in New Orleans in 2011. After working for a year 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 on Human Sexuality and began working with Missionary groups known as “Generation Life” and the “Culture Project” to spread the message of Saint John Paul II’s Theology of the Body to young people nationwide.

BARNABAS (MICHAEL) O’REILLY

Barnabas (Michael) O’Reilly is the son of Lawrence and Eileen Reilly. He has two brothers, Russell and Patrick, and two sisters, Shannon and Kathleen. He graduated from Bishop McCort High-School in 2008 and from Saint Vincent College in 2012, majoring in biology and theology. He was employed as a laboratory technician at the University of Pittsburgh and then with a Catholic Missionary group known as “Saint Paul’s Outreach” (SPO) at West Virginia University. For the past two years Michael has worked as a SPO Missionary at West Virginia University.

GABRIEL EVAN NEELY

Gabriel (Evan) Neely is the son of Jerry Wayne Neely and Geralyn Marie Neely. He has one brother, Dane. He graduated from Cranberry High School in 2011. He graduated from Saint Vincent College in 2015 with a degree in business management, with a minor in operational excellence. He served an internship at Kennametal, working as a process engineer on the Operational Excellence Team up until he entered the novitiate. He was also employed at Four Seasons Brewing Company in Latrobe.