Fr. Cassian Lewinski OP

1941 - 2025

Fr. Cassian Lewinski, OP
08/18/1941 - 11/05/2025
Thomas John Lewinski was born in Winona, MN, in the summer of 1941 while the world was in the agonies of war. Poland, the homeland of his parents' families, had already been overrun by the Nazis. John Joseph and Sophia Irene (Palubicki) Lewinski made St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, the local Polish parish, the center of gravity of Thomas's early childhood and most of his elementary education was at the parish school. The Lewinskis sent their only child to Cotter Catholic high school, from which he graduated in 1959. His small stature ruled out success in athletics, but these schools nurtured his love for reading and his appreciation for good literature, both of which he would later use as a preacher.
Thomas attended St. Mary's College in his hometown, where he earned a bachelor's degree in English. Discerning a call to religious life, he entered the novitiate of the Western Dominican Province in California. After five years of formation and study at the Priory of St. Albert the Great in Oakland and the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, he was ordained in 1969. He then spent an additional year completing master's degrees in divinity and theology.
At the beginning of his Dominican life, he took the name Cassian after St. John Cassian, an early sixth century theologian and mystic whose work, "The Conferences," presented the wisdom of the desert Fathers in the form of discourses by famous abbots. Throughout his life, thoughtful, often paradoxical quotes from Abbot Serapion, Abbot Serenus, or Abbot Isaac made their way into Fr. Cassian's preaching and pastoral counseling.
Fr. Cassian served in campus ministries and parishes staffed by the Dominicans. He was appointed Master of Novices from 1985-1990. In his later years, he offered pastoral assistance to the local clergy in Las Vegas and Los Angeles before signs of dementia required him to retire.
In a reflection on Dominican religious life written in 1967, Fr. Cassian quoted Cardinal Newman's observation that the seemingly contradictory combination of contemplation, study, communal life and active ministry that are the hallmarks of the life Fr. Cassian had chosen was, "a beautiful ideal, but impossible to live!" Fr. Cassian respectfully disagreed. He wrote, "one has to struggle with contradictions, meld the opposites, face the paradoxes, and only in this confrontation will life emerge and joy be found."
One aspect of Fr. Cassian's ministry sprang from his enduring love of literature: the book discussion group. Everywhere he ministered, he gathered diverse people to read and discuss literature that confronted paradoxes or engendered an awareness of God's presence in daily life. Annie Dillard, one of his favorite authors, wrote, "The dedicated life is worth living. You must give with your whole heart." Fr. Cassian dedicated his life to God and gave his heart in service to the men and women created in the Divine image.
A vigil will be held at St. Dominic Catholic Church, 475 East I Street, Benicia, CA, on Thursday, November 13 at 7:30 PM. A funeral Mass will be held at the same location Friday, November 14, at 10:30 AM. Burial will follow at St. Dominic's cemetery in Benicia. A memorial fund has been established to honor Fr. Cassian. Gifts will support the education of Fr. Cassian's Dominican brothers still in formation. Please donate online at https://opwest.org/frcassianlewinski