Brother Daniel Durig

Daniel Robert Durig was the tenth of eleven children born to John Durig and Margaret McNaughton. He entered the world on March 8, 1931, in Niles, Ohio, and was baptized at St. Stephen’s Church there on March 22, 1931. He was later confirmed at St. Stephen’s on April 5, 1943. His father John ran a store at which Daniel worked when he was old enough and his mother was a homemaker.

Daniel went to elementary school at St. Stephen’s in Niles, Ohio. His high school years were spent both at St. Mary’s High School in Warren, Ohio, and for one year at Sacred Heart Juniorate in Watertown, Wisconsin.

Brother Daniel Durig entered the Brothers of Holy Cross as a novice at St. Joseph Novitiate in Rolling Prairie, Indiana, on February 1, 1951. He made his first profession of vows there on February 2, 1952. He made his perpetual profession of vows at Sacred Heart Church on the University of Notre Dame campus on August 16, 1955.

Immediately after completing his novitiate year, Brother Daniel began his work in the Congregation as a cook. He was first assigned to St. Joseph Novitiate in Rolling Prairie, Indiana. In 1956 he was assigned at Holy Cross in New Orleans. In 1958 he made the move to Austin, Texas, where he had the responsibility to cook for the scholastic brothers numbering over 100 each year for eight years at Vincent Hall Scholasticate. After a brief stop at St. Francis in Mountain View, the Provincial House, and again at Vincent Hall, Brother Daniel returned to Holy Cross in New Orleans where he oversaw food service and began a bakery.

In 1973, Brother Daniel was elected to the Provincial Council and served in Austin, Texas. At the same time he took classes at St. Edward’s University and earned his B.A. degree in May of 1976. After earning his degree, he accepted assignment as a teacher and eventually as local superior and candidate director at Holy Cross High School in San Antonio, Texas. In 1983, he was part of a group of four Brothers who established a new ministry at St. Anthony Parish in Casper, Wyoming. He stayed there until 1986 when he returned to Holy Cross in New Orleans.

After a year in New Orleans, he returned to Austin to oversee the assisted living program for the Brothers of Holy Cross. While in Austin, he helped establish a kitchen and food service program for the Brothers at St. Joseph Hall. After a short stint in Beaumont, Texas, Brother Daniel returned briefly to Austin before being appointed Director of the local community at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California. In 2008, he moved once again to Holy Cross in San Antonio, Texas, where he took up a ministry of baking cookies to be sold to support the Brazilian missions.

Brother Daniel passed away peacefully at St. David’s South Austin Medical Center on January 10, 2011. There is a service planned for Holy Cross High School in San Antonio, Texas, on Friday, January 14, at 10:00 a.m. His funeral Mass will be held at St. Joseph Hall on the St. Edward’s University campus on Saturday, January 15; at 10:00 a.m. Interment will follow at Assumption Cemetery.