A funeral Mass for Father Peter (Pete) Schavitz, CSsR, was celebrated Aug. 22 at Mary, Mother of the Church in south St. Louis County. Father Schavitz died Aug. 5 at the age of 75 while receiving hospice care at the St. Clement Redemptorist Mission Community in Barnhart. A charismatic and gifted preacher, he devoted more than three decades of ministry to the preaching apostolate. He was in great demand for his popular parish missions, which were often scheduled years in advance.
He was born to Peter and Collette Schavitz on Sept. 5, 1950, in Evanston, Illinois. He was the baby of the family and grew up with four doting older sisters. Young Pete graduated from St. Mary’s School in Des Plaines, Illinois, and at the age of 13 entered the Redemptorist formation program at St. Joseph’s Preparatory College in Edgerton, Wisconsin.
A friendly and sociable young man, Pete thrived in the structured seminary system. He was a member of the inaugural freshman class at Holy Redeemer College in Waterford, Wisconsin, in 1968. He and his classmates proceeded to novitiate at Immaculate Conception Seminary in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, and professed temporary vows on Aug. 2, 1970. He completed theological studies at Mount St. Alphonsus in Esopus, New York, and professed perpetual vows on Aug. 24, 1974. He was ordained to the priesthood at Holy Redeemer College on June 3, 1976, by Redemptorist Bishop Clarence Duhart, the first bishop of the Diocese of Udon Thani in the region of Isan, Thailand.
Newly ordained Father Pete began ministry as a faculty member of St. Joseph’s Preparatory College and completed his master of communications arts degree at the University of Wisconsin in 1977. Two years later, he was appointed vocation director, a position he held for eight years. During this time, he was heavily involved in Marriage Encounter weekends. He even headed up the Marriage Encounter Committee for the 1984 Marriage Encounter National Convention in Chicago.
Father Pete was appointed local superior and pastor of Mary, Mother of the Church Parish in south St. Louis County for three years starting in 1987. He was appointed director of Villa Redeemer Retreat House in Glenview, Illinois, and served there for two years.
Father Pete found his true niche in 1992, when he joined the mission team as an itinerant mission preacher based in Chicago. From 1992 to 2000, he made his home at St. Alphonsus Parish, followed by five years at St. Michael Parish from 2000 to 2005. Week after week, he poured countless hours into preparing his parish missions, traveling throughout North America to preach, encourage and renew the faith of countless communities. His warm personality and engaging preaching won him friends wherever he went, and his reputation as a gifted mission preacher grew to the point that parishes were often booking him years in advance. His support of the Redemptorist mission extended to the Redemptorists’ foreign missions in the Amazon region of Brazil and in Nigeria.
He was selected to consolidate fundraising efforts in Denver in 2005. He served as president of the Development Office for three years before he returned to the mission team at Liguori Mission House in 2008. In 2019, he was assigned as a missionary in residence at St. Alphonsus “Rock” Parish in St. Louis, and served the Denver Province as co-director of the Transition to Ministry program. He joined the St. Clement Redemptorist Mission Community in Barnhart in 2023.
Burial was in the Redemptorist Cemetery in Barnhart.
