WILLISTON, N.D. (AP) - Snow fell from heavy, gray skies as people filed into St. Joseph’s Church in Williston on Jan. 12. But just about an hour later, after remembering the life of a long-time local spiritual leader through prayer, songs and a seemingly never-ending supply of stories, the sun, for a few moments, greeted the crowd as it streamed outside again.
The bright light mirrored the life of Father Raymond Aydt, who died in Bismarck in early January at the age of 94.
Rather than react to Aydt’s death with a sense of loss, those he’d touched during his more than 50 years of service in the Williston area celebrated what they’d gained by knowing him as a beloved pastor, friend and leader.
“He was faithful and dedicated, and he was always about the people,” Pastor Russell Kovash of St. Joseph’s Church told the Williston Herald (https://bit.ly/1WMXOrH ). “He was a model, he lived his priesthood according to how we as priests should.”
Kovash pointed out that priests are eligible for retirement at age 70, an option that Aydt apparently never considered.
“He worked like a horse until he was 90, still ministering. That’s incredible,” the pastor said. “What he did over those years here was really extraordinary.”
Towards the end of his life, Aydt was in pain. He suffered from heart disease and lost feeling in his feet, making walking all but impossible. Still, he never complained, Kovash said. He continued to drive to Grenora to hold services for the congregation there until he slid into the ditch on an icy day, prompting the bishop to ask him to give up the car keys. Undeterred, Aydt asked friends for rides to the small church, serving there until his body began to fail him.
The elderly priest didn’t want to leave Williston, friends said, but when health problems began to worsen about two years ago, Aydt, again acting on the advice of the bishop, made the difficult decision to move to an assisted care facility across the state.
“He absolutely loved northwest North Dakota,” Kovash said.
Aydt was buried on Jan. 8 following a funeral in Bismarck, but church leaders here held a memorial mass in honor of his half century of service in Williams County.
The Minnesota native became a priest in 1946, eventually making his way east to serve as pastor of St. Joseph Church in Williston and St. John the Baptist in Trenton until the early 1970s. He served as assistant for the two congregations for another 18 years, and pastored the Church of St. Boniface in Grenora until 2013, when ill health forced his retirement.
Aydt was also a constant, and comforting, presence at Mercy Medical Center, where he served as chaplain for more than 50 years.
Dr. Joseph Adducci worked with Aydt for more decades at Mercy Hospital. “He was always there for everybody. When no one else would come, he would come,” Adducci said.
Despite the irregular hours and time often spent at dying patients’ bedsides, Aydt never faltered.
“He was a great guy, and everybody understood that he was a great guy,” Adducci said.
Aydt’s love for community was evidenced by his involvement in it, friends said. He was a longtime member of the Knights of Columbus, served as president of the local Kiwanis club for a time, was a Rotary Club member and loved to golf.
“He left us with a lot of memories,” Ellie Pasternak, of Grenora, said. Her husband, Nick, used to play pinochle with Aydt, she said. The priest was known for his skill at cards, and had a wide circle of friends who he’d meet for regular games.
The charismatic priest was broadcast over local airwaves as part of “The Rat Patrol,” a morning radio show, and even played the drums in the local Drum and Bugle Corps.
But it was his ability to find common ground that impacted the most people, many said after the Jan. 12 service.
Aydt, bothered by tensions between Lutherans and Catholics in Williston about 40 years ago, offered his services at the First Lutheran Church’s annual lutefisk dinner in an effort to neutralize differences. The man known as “The Bishop of Williston” planted himself in the kitchen to wash dishes, choosing a practical role rather than working the crowd. He rolled up his sleeves at the event for years, a gesture that many said was instrumental in breaking the ice between the two faiths. Finally, Aydt was one of the first to be inducted into the Lutheran church’s Lutefisk Hall of Fame.
The relationship between the churches was put to the test around 1980, when St. Joseph’s Church burned down, leaving parishioners with nowhere to meet.
“First Lutheran let us have services there,” said Dan Kalil, a former student at St. Joseph’s School who knew Aydt for decades.
When the new church was finished in 1981, both congregations walked down Main Street from the Lutheran church to the Catholic one to open the doors for the first time together, Kalil said.
“It was his personality that really broke those barriers,” he said.
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Information from: Williston Herald, https://www.willistonherald.com
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