Two monks of Saint Vincent Archabbey will be ordained to the diaconate on Saturday, July 23, by Most Rev. Lawrence E. Brandt, J.C.D., Ph.D., Bishop of Greensburg, in the Archabbey Basilica. They are most recently from Savannah, and the Duquesne area of Pittsburgh.
Brother Francis (George) Ehnat, O.S.B., born in Bay Shore, Long Island, New York, is a son of the late Marianne F. and James H. Dean.
He attended Eisenhower Elementary School, Kansas, and is a 1967 graduate of Camden High School, South Carolina. He earned a bachelor of science degree in zoology in 1972 from Clemson University. He also attended Armstrong State College in Savannah, Saint Vincent College and began studies at Saint Vincent Seminary in 2007.
He made simple profession of monastic vows on July 10, 1985 and solemn profession of vows on July 11, 1988.
Prior to his service at Saint Vincent, he was a lab technician at Hunt-Wesson Foods, Inc., in Savannah, and did volunteer work at a night shelter in Savannah for two years, four years with Project D.A.W.N., Guyana, South America. At Saint Vincent, he has served as miller at the gristmill (1985-1988); manager of the gristmill (1986-1988); assistant sacristan at the Archabbey Basilica (1985-1988). From 1988 to 2007, he was assigned to Benedictine Priory in Savannah, where he was archivist (1989-2007). He was maintenance director of Benedictine Military School in Savannah (1997-2007).
Upon his return to Latrobe in 2007, he was named associate director of Archabbey guests and guest facilities and miller at the Saint Vincent Gristmill.
Brother Nathanael Edward Polinski, O.S.B., is the son of Mary Ann Polinski of Duquesne and the late Raymond E. Polinski.
He is a 1983 graduate of Serra Catholic High School and earned a bachelor of science degree in metallurgical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh in 1987. He received a master of business administration degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1993. He began studies at Saint Vincent Seminary in 2006.
He entered the novitiate of Saint Vincent Archabbey in 2005, and made simple profession of monastic vows on July 10, 2006. He was appointed socius of novices and assistant to the director of Archabbey Finances and Investments in 2006, and served on the faculty of Saint Vincent College (2007-2009).
