Father Joachim A. Giermek, 80, Buffalonian who was 118th successor of St. Francis of Assisi

Father Joachim A. Giermek, OFM Conv., a Buffalo native and Franciscan Friar who became the 118th successor of St. Francis of Assisi, died Jan. 5 in Ellicott City, Md. He was 80.

He was elected in 2001 to become minister general of the international Order of Conventual Franciscan Friars, who follow the rule of St. Francis. He was the third friar from America to hold the order’s top leadership post.

“He is very scholarly with a deep faith,” Rev. Marion Tolczyk, director of “The Father Justin Rosary Hour” Polish language radio program and a longtime acquaintance of Father Giermek, told Buffalo News religion reporter Dave Condren in 2001.

“He was willing to study the life of St. Francis,” Tolczyk said, “and live out his life the way St. Francis would live it.”

One of three children, Joachim Anthony Giermek was the son of Joseph and Mary Kowalczyk Giermek. He grew up in Sloan, attended St. Andrew’s School and was a 1960 graduate of Bishop Ryan High School, which was staffed by the Conventual Franciscans.

He entered the Novitiate of the Conventual Franciscans in Ellicott City, completed a bachelor’s degree in philosophy at St. Hyacinth College in Granby, Mass., and professed his solemn vows Aug. 15, 1964.

After teaching for a year at a Catholic high school in Baltimore, he studied at the Pontifical Academy of St. Bonaventure in Rome, Italy. Ordained in the Basilica of the Twelve Apostles in Rome on Dec. 23, 1969, he celebrated his first Mass of Thanksgiving on Aug. 16, 1970, in his home parish, St. Andrew’s Church in Sloan.

Tolczyk, as provincial of St. Anthony of Padua Province, sent Father Giermek to the Franciscan Institute at St. Bonaventure University, where he earned a master’s degree in 1977, along with the title “Master of Franciscan Spirituality.” He then conducted retreats for friars throughout the province and was invited to lead retreats in other provinces.

He also worked on a doctoral degree…