After serving 17 years as a Benedictine at Mount Michael Abbey in Nebraska, Father Martin Beckman came to Minnesota and was a priest for 50 years in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He died at a hospital in St. Louis Park Jan. 1 at the age of 93.
Father Michael Erlander, a retired priest of the archdiocese who knew Father Beckman for more than 30 years, said his friend was friendly and strong in his opinions. They were part of a group of about five priests who met once a month to share vespers, conversation and dinner.
“He and I were the last two (who) survived over time,” said Father Erlander, 82, remarking that other members of the group had died. “We started with 10 people. There were five us who hung in there (together).”
Father Erlander was the homilist at Father Beckman’s funeral Mass Jan. 18 at St. Therese in Deephaven, where Father Beckman served for six years as pastor in the 1980s. Archbishop Bernard Hebda presided at the funeral. Burial was at Resurrection Cemetery in Shorewood, a site maintained and directed by St. John the Baptist in Excelsior.
Pat Strandberg, a member of St. Therese who was there when Father Beckman was pastor, said he was kind and gentle. Strandberg said Father Beckman was parochial administrator when her family attended St. Joseph in Hopkins. Later, as pastor of St. Therese, he blessed her family’s home when they moved to Minnetonka and joined the Deephaven parish.
“To this day when I see the certificate he left us with the blessing, I feel that our home was indeed protected and watched over by God and his angels,” she said.
Strandberg also was impressed with Father Beckman’s homilies. “He could relate so much to so many things,” she said.
Entering the abbey in 1956 and ordained to the priesthood in 1958, Father Beckman was incardinated to the archdiocese in 1978. He was associate pastor of St. Mary of the Lake in Plymouth from 1973 to 1975 and associate pastor and then parochial administrator of St. Joseph in Hopkins from 1975 to 1980.
Father Beckman was pastor of St. Therese from 1980 to 1986, pastor of All Saints in Lakeville from 1986 to 1992 and St. John Vianney in South St. Paul from 1992 until his retirement from active ministry in 2000.
