Father Adrien A. Cloutier, MM

Born: June 28, 1910
Ordained: June 16, 1937
Died: June 30, 1946

Adrien Cloutier was born on June 28, 1910 in Lewiston, Maine. The sermon of a China missioner, heard when Adrien was a high-school student at the Petit Seminaire in Montreal, inspired him to enter Montfort Apostolic College. Although he later returned to his own diocese, the call to the foreign missions eventually prevailed and he was accepted into Maryknoll’s first novitiate class in 1933.

He was ordained on June 16, 1937 and assigned to the Hawaiian Islands that same year. During his first year at Sacred Heart Parish in Honolulu, Father Cloutier suffered an illness that had previously interrupted his Deacon year. After a long recovery, he was able to return to Sacred Heart where he labored until 1942. Because of his understanding manner in dealing with the young, Father Cloutier was then placed in charge of a small boys home in Hilo. He accepted the difficult assignment with forty boys under his care. But in September of 1944, while saying Mass, he collapsed from exhaustion. He was anointed on this occasion but recovered after several months.

When the extensive parish of Olaa on the Island of Hawaii was divided in 1945, Fr. Cloutier volunteered to take care of the poorer sections – Pahoa, with its scattered thousands of plantation workers, and Kalapana, with all its fishermen. This was followed by a period of extraordinary mission work on the part of the young  missioner. Frequently making the long drives between Pahoa and Kalapana, he sought out the families of the farmers and fishermen, and also taught catechism in many public schools of his parish. So engrossed did he become with this work that he failed to provide sufficient food and shelter for his own needs.

In March of 1946, Father Cloutier’s vision became clouded. It was a symptom for a graver illness. Father returned to the mainland in June. His passing came suddenly on June 30 when he was with his parents in Lewiston.

At the request of his mother, the funeral was held at St. Mary’s in Lewiston and burial was in the family plot.