A requiem Mass for Brother Luke Bauer, MS, was celebrated Nov. 21 at St. Mary Magdalen Church in Brentwood. Brother Bauer of the Missionaries of La Salette died Nov. 16. He was 78 years old.
Born on Sept. 28, 1946, in St. Louis to Harold J. Bauer Sr. and Fern C. Bauer, Luke attended St. Patrick School from 1954-62 and graduated from Mercy High School in University City in 1966.
He served in maintenance at the La Salette Seminary in Jefferson City, Missouri, in 1967 and community cook for the residence of Missionaries of La Salette in St. Louis from 1967-76. He attended classes at Kenrick Seminary from 1970-73 and he served as religious education teacher for St. Hedwig Parish in St. Louis in 1970.
In 1976, Brother Bauer was transferred to Lufkin, Texas, to the novitiate residence. In 1978, he moved to La Salette College in Houston for formation. He was an assistant for the parish Boy Scout program at Immaculate Conception Church in 1982 and continued his service at the La Salette residence. Brother Bauer then moved to the La Salette Missionaries in St. Louis for the next four decades. He celebrated 50 years of religious life on July 2, 2018.
In St. Louis, Brother Bauer was in charge of the kitchen and set up the menus each day. He also cooked many of the meals during the week. When he entered the community, he didn’t start out as a cook, but when asked to help, he found it was something he loved doing.
“Necessity brought me into the kitchen,” he once wrote. “Once involved in cooking, I felt the need to take culinary classes where I discovered my talent. Cooking changed my attitude from just doing a ‘job’ for the community to becoming my passion.”
Brother Bauer also had a passion for quiet prayer and meditation, riding horses and taking long walks every day, especially in the cool pre-dawn hours.
He is survived by his older brother, Harold (Joe) Bauer Jr. (Janice); an older sister, Patsy Mann; and his younger siblings, Jean (Dan) Chartrand, Jim (Mary) Bauer, Bill Bauer and MaryAnne (John) Wilkin. He was “Uncle Bob” to 17 nieces and nephews and “Great Uncle Bob” to 36 great nieces and nephews.
Burial was in Resurrection Cemetery.
