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December 30, 2020Joseph Timothy Freund of the Saint Alphonsus Villa Community, New Smyrna Beach, Florida, died on December 27, 2020, age 87.
Born December 22, 1933, in Manhattan, he was the son of Francis J. and Julia (Rein). He was baptized at St. Raphael’s in New York City, January 14, 1934 and educated at St. Jerome’s in the Bronx. He attended public school for junior and senior high school, plus night school for one year prior to graduation.
He attended St. Mary’s College Minor Seminary, North East, PA, from 1954 to 1960 and professed August 2, 1961 at St. Mary’s, Ilchester, Maryland, making final vows at Mt. St. Alphonsus Seminary, Esopus, New York, on September 2, 1964. He was ordained to the priesthood there on June 19, 1966.
The terocinium was made at Annapolis between 1967 and 1968. Father Freund’s first assignment was to the Vice-Province of Richmond’s Sacred Heart Church in New Smyrna Beach, Florida (1968-1969) and then to Sacred Heart in Griffin, Georgia (1969-1973), where he had charge of the mission parish of St. George in Newnan–a congregation that nearly doubled in size during his tenure.
He returned to St. Mary’s, North East, for a year-long assignment as vocation director (1973-1974). Between 1974 and 1976, he was assigned to Holy Redeemer College in Washington, DC, and was part of the Renewal team, which gave retreats, workshops, and missions. In August 1976 he was assigned to Boston’s Mission Church, where he was the prefect of the High School for a year. He returned to Washington and served as minister for Holy Redeemer College between 1977 and 1979.
In December 1979, Father Freund joined the Province of San Juan and labored first at Caguas (pro tem) and then briefly at Frederiksted in the US Virgin Islands. He returned to the Baltimore Province in November 1980 and joined the community at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Bradford, Vermont (1980-1983), where he had charge of St. Eugene’s Chapel in Wells River and did group work with prisoners enrolled in Alcoholics Anonymous.
After a year at St. Joseph’s in Rochester, New York, he took up retreat work at St. Alphonsus Retreat House in Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania. He remained there until December 31, 1985, after which he began a long period serving in Baltimore, first at St. Wenceslaus (1986-1988) and then at Our Lady of Fatima (1988-1995). Between February 1995 and August 1996, he was a retreat master at Notre Dame Retreat House in Canandaigua, New York, before returning again to Baltimore as associate pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus parish.
Father Freund was then part of the mission band, basing himself first at Mt. St. Alphonsus, Esopus, New York from June 2003 until the end of 2004, when he went back to the Caribbean for a brief assignment at Seelos House in Palmiste, Vieux Fort, on the Island of St. Lucia. He returned to the United States to continue to give missions, this time with his base at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, New York City (2005-2014).
Father Freund made one last international journey in the meantime. In June 2007, at age 73, Father Freund responded to a call to preach parish missions in South Africa, where he remained until the end of the year. During this period he wrote to his confreres about delightful (and not so delightful) encounters with Cape Cobras and monkeys, crocodiles and elephants, Emperor Dragonflies and zebras. He had the gift of the poetic, as when he recalled “a herd of Springbok grazed and moved like pretty ballerinas in a slow motion dance.”
Owing to health needs, his final assignments were to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Brooklyn, NY (2014-2019), then, from April 1 to November 2019, at the St. John Neumann Residence at Stella Maris, Timonium, Maryland, and November 9, 2019 to St. Alphonsus Villa in New Smyrna Beach until his death.
Funeral Arrangements for Fr. Joseph Freund, C.Ss.R.
Viewing – January 4, Monday, 9:30 a.m. – St. Alphonsus Villa chapel
Funeral – January 4, Monday 10 a.m. – St. Alphonsus Villa Chapel
Burial to follow: Edgewater-New Smyrna Cemetery, Edgewater, Florida
Due to COVID restrictions please contact Fr. Raymond Collins, C.Ss.R. at St. Alphonsus Villa in New Smyrna Beach, FL if you wish to attend.
