Father Venantius Preske
Father Venantius “Vincent” Preske, who was incardinated to the Diocese of Little Rock in 1979, died Nov. 9 in Searcy. He was 91.
Father Preske was born in Indiana in 1924 with eight brothers and sisters. During the Great Depression, his family sold strawberries in order to survive, according to a 2012 Arkansas Catholic article. Father Preske credited his mother’s prayers and Catholic upbringing for his call to the priesthood.
“My mother prayed that every one of her children would have a religious vocation,” he said in 2012. Four of the nine children followed the call to a religious vocation.
Father Preske was ordained May 31, 1952, as a Glenmary Home Missioner priest. He worked in several rural areas before coming to Arkansas to Our Lady of the Ozarks Shrine in Winslow and the mission in Huntsville. After serving 12 years in Winslow, he felt called to be a diocesan priest.
He served as pastor of St. Mary of the Mount Church in Horseshoe Bend with a mission in Cherokee Village in 1975, and in 1982 he became pastor at St. Anthony Church in Weiner and St. Norbert Church in Marked Tree.
Because of deteriorating health, he retired in 1993 and moved back to Horseshoe Bend, where he enjoyed gardening and beekeeping and celebrated Masses in Latin in Mountain Home and in English in Horseshoe Bend as requested.
There are no immediate survivors.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held Nov. 13 at St. Mary of the Mount Church with Bishop Anthony B. Taylor presiding. Burial will be in Evansville, Ind.
