Most of us probably never met Reverand Mancuso but our lives were all touched by his actions.

This obituary comes from the Chicago Tribune.

Laurence Mancuso: 1934 – 2007
Founded dog-breeding monastery

New York Times News Service
Published July 2, 2007

Rev. Laurence Mancuso, the founding abbot of The Monks of New Skete, whose hilltop monastery in upstate New York is renowned for breeding German shepherds and teaching a holistic approach to dog training, has died in Framingham, Mass. He was 72.

Rev. Mancuso, who retired in 2000, died June 10 of complications from injuries suffered in a fall, said Brother Stavros Winner, one of the six monks who, in 1966, helped Rev. Mancuso revive a small farm in a valley outside Cambridge, N.Y., 50 miles north of Albany.

At the time the monastery was founded, the monks were members of the Roman Catholic Church but later joined the Orthodox Church in America.

In 1969, a kennel in Morristown, N.J., donated a German shepherd to the monastery. But one winter night, the dog ran away. The monks had become so attached to the dog, Winner said, that they soon replaced it with two others, then began breeding more.

With Rev. Mancuso’s approval, the brothers studied veterinary medicine, animal nutrition and breeding. The monastery’s pack of German shepherds continued to grow, with one dog at a time assigned to each monk for training.

Follow this link to read the rest of the obituary.