Rev. Fr. William Holt
Visitation:
Thursday
September 21, 2023
4 PM - 7PM
Location:
St. Vincent de Ferrer Church
869 Lexington Ave
New York, NY 10065
Funeral Mass:
Friday
September 22, 2023
10 AM
Location:
St. Vincent de Ferrer Church
869 Lexington Ave
New York, NY 10065
Father William Alexander Holt died suddenly in Ireland, one day after concelebrating the wedding of a family member of the late Fr. John McGuire, O.P. He is survived by his sisters, Kathleen McGurk, Michelle Holt Wyatt, and Maureen E. Frain, and his brothers Robert M. Holt, Thomas J. Holt, Michael B. Holt, and many nieces, nephews, and extended family members.
Father Holt was born in Jersey City, NJ on December 18, 1941, the oldest of seven children of William Alexander and Grace Marie (née Donohue) Holt. He attended grade school at St. Peter’s and St. Joseph’s schools in Jersey City and first met Dominicans attending Dominican Camp in Staatsburg, New York. In 1959, he graduated from St. Michael’s High School in Jersey City. After a couple of years working in New York City, he entered the novitiate of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in Somerset, OH as a cooperator brother, and making his first profession on November 27, 1962. During his time as cooperator brother, he had the religious name Bonaventure.
He was then assigned to the Dominican House of Studies, where he worked in the laundry until 1964, when he became the procurator’s secretary. In 1966, he joined the province’s mission in Chimbote, Peru, where he ran a retreat house and served as the community’s procurator. In 1968 he returned to the United States to enroll as a student, first at Providence College, and from 1969-71 at St. Stephen’s College in Dover, MA.
After returning for a year to the cooperator brothers’ community at the Dominican House of Studies, Brother Bonaventure determined that his vocation was really to the priesthood. He withdrew from the Order and enrolled at the Pope John XXIII Seminary in Weston, MA for the Diocese of Norwich. After four years of study there, he was ordained to the priesthood at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Norwich, CT, by Most Reverend Daniel P. Reilly, on May 8, 1976.
Father Holt served as a priest of Norwich, first as parochial vicar at St. Mary’s Church in New London, CT, from 1976 to 1978 and then at St. Bernard’s Church in Rockville, CT from 1978 to 1982.
Desiring to return to the Order, Father Holt was accepted to the novitiate at St. Stephen’s Priory in Dover, MA, and made simple profession on August 15, 1982. He was assigned for parochial ministry to Holy Name Church in Philadelphia from 1982 to 1984, to St. Catherine of Siena Priory in New York City for hospital ministry from 1984-1985, and finally to nearby St. Vincent Ferrer Priory as Assistant Director of Development for the province. There, he made solemn profession on August 15, 1985.
In 1986, Father Holt was made director of Dominican Camp, then in operation for seventy-five years, to oversee the final year of its operation. In 1988, he was assigned as parochial vicar to St. Gertrude Priory in Cincinnati, and in 1992 to Sacred Heart Priory in his native Jersey City. He returned to St. Gertrude in 1993, where he was elected prior and appointed pastor in 1997.
In 1999, Father Holt was sent to St. Mary Priory in New Haven, CT, to be director of the Shrine of the Infant of Prague. He was subsequently elected prior and appointed pastor there in 2001. In 2008, he was elected prior of St. Vincent Ferrer Priory in New York City, and in 2011 was appointed as pastor at Holy Innocents Church in Pleasantville, NY. He returned to New Haven to assist the ministry of St. Mary Priory in 2015, and finally to St. Vincent Ferrer Priory in 2017 where he undertook the project of, as he said, making his old age pleasing to God.
Father Holt had the gift of speaking wisdom entertainingly: “helpful hints from Holt” were a standard feature of his conversations with brothers in formation. He had a habit of engaging people passing by his door; as he said in an interview for America magazine (October 6, 2022), “I stand on the porch and I meet the world. …I want (people) to come into church. …They have to experience silence in church….Silence taught me to listen, because I’m a great talker. I would talk the handle off that door. But silence is a great thing.”
Father Holt’s body will be received at the Dominican church of St. Mary in Claddagh, Galway, near where he passed away, on Saturday, September 16, with a requiem Mass celebrated by Rev. Pat Lucey, O.P. After his casket is returned to the United States, his body will be received at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer at 4:00pm on September 21. The Office of the Dead will be prayed that evening and the following morning. The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:00am September 22 with Very Rev. Allen Moran, O.P., prior provincial, presiding and Rev. James Quigley, O.P. preaching the homily. Following this funeral Mass, his body will be buried in the Dominican section of All Souls’ Cemetery in Pleasantville, New York.
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