May 05, 2022
Rev. Bernard Frederick Langton, O.P., retired philosophy professor
Rev. Bernard Frederick Langton, O.P., who died April 1, 2022, at the Hope Health Hulitar Hospice Center in Providence, was a quiet, gentle, and loving man and priest. He rejoiced in Dominican community life and priestly ministry. Widely read, he relished teaching philosophy, especially the philosophy of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. He enthusiastically preached Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. He was a fan of professional sports and a lover of grand opera.
Father Langton was born in Providence and graduated from La Salle Academy in 1946. After a year of active service in the U.S. Army, he attended Bryant University, earning a bachelor of science degree in business administration. He worked for Builders Iron Foundry in Providence and studied in PC’s adult education program before entering the novitiate at St. Joseph Priory in Somerset, Ohio, in 1962. He was ordained to the priesthood in on June 5, 1969, at St. Dominic Church in Washington, D.C., by Most Rev. Edward J. Herrmann, D.D., auxiliary bishop of Washington.
Father Langton was awarded a master’s degree in philosophy from St. Stephen Priory and College in Dover, Mass., in 1967; a bachelor of sacred theology degree from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., in 1968; and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of St. Thomas (the Angelicum) in Rome in 1975.
He taught philosophy at PC from 1970-1980, when he left to fulfill assignments in Pennsylvania and New York. He was chaplain to religious sisters at the Monastery of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Lancaster, Pa., and was superior and pastor of Holy Rosary Parish in Hawthorne, N.Y., where he spearheaded construction of a new church and rectory. While a priest at St. Vincent Ferrer Priory in New York City, he served as assistant treasurer for the Province of St. Joseph and as subprior and academic administrator.
In 1990, Father Langton returned to PC to teach philosophy, retiring in his mid-80s with the rank of assistant professor. He also was subprior at St. Thomas Aquinas Priory from 1990-1993 and from 2002-2003.
Father Langton was predeceased by two brothers, Frederick and Edward. In addition to his Dominican brothers, he is survived by seven nieces and three nephews.
His life was celebrated with a Mass of Christian Burial in the Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary in St. Thomas Aquinas Priory on April 6.
