A funeral Mass for Brother Daniel (Dan) Korn, CSsR, will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Wednesday, March 11, at St. Clement Redemptorist Mission Community Chapel in Barnhart. Brother Dan died Feb. 28 while recovering from a surgical procedure in St. Louis. He was 79.
A beloved mentor and spiritual director to generations of Redemptorists, Brother Dan will be remembered for sharing his deep devotion to Our Mother of Perpetual Help worldwide, fulfilling the Redemptorist mandate to “make her known” through presentations, retreats, books and videos based upon the Eastern traditions of Marian iconography and prayer.
He was born to Glen and Alyce (Thieme) Korn on Jan. 11, 1947, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Dan often accompanied his mother to the weekly Sorrowful Mother Novena at St. Hyacinth Church. The family converted to the Catholic faith, and Dan was baptized at the age of 10. He always gave credit to the Mother of God for bringing his family into the Catholic Church and then leading him to religious life as a Redemptorist brother.
Dan enrolled at Villa Majella, the religious brothers school in Pine City, Minnesota. He made his first profession of vows on Aug. 2, 1966. He served in Edgerton, Wisconsin; Clinton, Iowa; and Chicago before professing perpetual vows on Aug. 2, 1970. He completed second novitiate at Immaculate Conception College/Health Care Center in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.
Brother Dan served on the staff of St. Joseph’s Preparatory College for a year. A year later he was appointed to retreat ministry at Villa Redeemer in Glenview, Illinois, before serving on the Province Secretariat for brothers and participate in the worldwide General Chapter in Rome.
Brother Dan joined the staff at Mary, Mother of the Church in south St. Louis County in 1973. He began to complete advanced courses and specialty programs in spirituality, liturgy and music. He was assigned at St. Alphonsus Ligouri “Rock” Church in St. Louis in 1980, where he was appointed liturgist and director of the music ministry. He stepped in to serve in formation at nearby St. John Neumann House after a confrere died. He joined the formation staff full time in 1985 and served for seven years. During this time, he also served on the Extraordinary Provincial Council of the Province.
Brother Dan was appointed to the Redemptorist novitiate in Ferguson in 1992. During this year of discernment for students, he and a confrere opened Domus Dei, a house of prayer available to anyone who needed a place for quiet prayer and contemplation. Five years later, Brother Dan was appointed director of mission effectiveness at Liguori Publications in Liguori and was named director of the Redemptorist Lay Missionary program. He was appointed to the Congregation’s Secretariat on Collaboration with the Laity in 1998.
Brother Dan served in retreat ministry at Perpetual Help Retreat Center in Oconomowoc from 2001 until 2007, when he returned to formation as administrator of the Villa Redeemer North American Novitiate in Glenview, Illinois. Four years later, he returned to Liguori Publications as coordinator of word and mission and contributing editor. He authored many articles and pamphlets on Redemptorist spirituality and the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. He began to write icons and continued to spread devotion to Our Mother of Perpetual Help for the remainder of his life.
Burial will be in Ligouri Cemetery.
