By WBFO Newsroom
Buffalo, NY – Identical twin friars, who spent 35 years working at at St. Bonaventure University, passed away on the same day at the age of 92.
The University announced that Friars Julian and Adrian Riester, identical twins, died just hours apart Wednesday at St. Anthony Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. The men served as professed Franciscan friars for 65 years. Julian died in the morning, and Adrian in the evening.
They were born in Buffalo just seconds apart on March 27, 1919. Their birth name were Jerome and Irving and had five sisters. Their father was a doctor.
"Dad was a doctor, and he said a prayer for a boy. The Lord fooled him and sent two," Br. Adrian once joked.
Both attended Catholic schools in Buffalo. They were graduates of Nardin Academy, Mt. St. Joseph Academy and St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute.
They tried to serve their country as young men, but they were turned down by the Armed Forces because of their eyesight. One had a bad left eye, the other a bad right eye. They then decided to join the Franciscan friars, and eventually joined the friars of Holy Name Province in New York City.
They were sent on separate assignments before heading to the seminary at St. Bonaventure from 1951 to 1956. Assigned to parishes in Buffalo for the next 17 years, the brothers returned to St. Bonaventure in 1973 and lived quiet, behind-the-scenes lives as carpenters, gardeners and chauffeurs for anyone who might need a ride to campus.
"Everyone I spoke to today was, of course, saddened to hear the news. They were dear, sweet men, the emodiment of everything good about the Franciscans," said Tom Missel, director of media relations and marketing at the university. "But everyone was also just amazed when they learned they died on the same day. It really is almost a poetic ending to the remarkable story of their lives. Stunning when you hear it, but hardly surprising given that they did almost everything together."
Funeral services for the brothers will be in St. Petersburg, Fla., where they had moved to the province's St. Anthony Friary in 2008. They will be buried at Calvary Cemetery in Clearwater, Fla.