Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center FIA Dinner 2010

52nd Franciscan International Award Dinner
Thursday, May 6, 2010

Our 2010 Franciscan International Award Recipient:

             Fr. Juniper Cummings, OFM Conv.
         For Building and Rebuilding the Church

We are pleased to announce that Fr. Juniper Cumings, OFM Conv., one of the prime forces behind the genesis of Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center, is the 2010 recipient of the Franciscan International Award. The Award was presented on Thursday, May 6, 2010 at the Royal Cliff Banquet Facility in Eagan, Minnesota. Along with Fr. Urban Wagner, and Fr. Nicholas Roling, Fr. Juniper played a crucial role in the development of the retreat ministry at Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center.

Fr. Juniper is a native of Louisville, Kentucky, and has been a friar for sixty-five years. On October 15^th, he will celebrate his 60^th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. He has served as a college professor, a pastor, a seminary rector, a retreat leader, a director of development for our province, and currently, a missionary in Zambia, where he continues to teach and do pastoral ministry.

Fr. Juniper has held numerous positions of leadership within the Franciscan Order and the Province of Our Lady of Consolation. He served as Assistant General of the Order from 1966-1969, and from 1982 to 1988, was Minister Provincial of the Province of Our Lady of Consolation. During one of his terms as Minister Provincial, he served as the President of the Conventual Franciscan Conference. In 1990, he answered the call of the friars in Zambia, and served as the Custos of the Custody of St. Francis from 1990-1996. It is difficult to find a ministry or a job that Fr. Juniper has not done, or is not willing to do.

Fr. Juniper was one of an early group of friars on the faculty of Assumption Seminary in Chaska, where Franciscan Retreats was born. A gifted speaker with a brilliant mind, a phenomenal memory and a wry sense of humor, Fr. Juniper is also one of the most thoughtful and joyful people you will ever meet. He has embraced every ministry he has undertaken with a generous and humble spirit. The response of the people he has known and served could not be more positive; he has been a great blessing and joy in the lives of so many.

One of his favorite accomplishments here in Minnesota was a program called, “Theology for the Laity,” which started in 1958 on Sunday evenings out of St. Richard Parish in Richfield. After a year, the program migrated to the College of St. Thomas (now The University of St. Thomas) in Saint Paul and eventually spread to St. Therese in Deephaven and Assumption Seminary in Chaska.. Education and catechesis have always been great passions for Fr. Juniper.