Fr Maximilian Mary Dean spends his days as a hermit in the hills of southern Pennsylvania celebrating Mass, praying the Liturgy of the Hours, reciting the Rosary – and recording rock music. Source: National Catholic Register.
“My primary vocation is prayer. And then flowing from that is the music,” Fr Dean told EWTN News In Depth.
A hermit with the Diocese of Harrisburg, Fr Dean averages more than 500,000 streams per year from more than 60,000 listeners. At the inaugural “Catholic Music Awards” at the Vatican this year, he was a finalist for the best rock song category, and his Song to Mary, Queen of All Hearts, won “Best Marian Song.”
His latest release, The Lord’s Will is Most Beautiful, typifies his vintage sound, inspired by the popular music of the ’70s and ’80s.
“I haven’t listened to secular pop music, rock music since 1988,” Fr Dean said. “Without any effort, my music sounds vintage because all my influences are pre-1988, the ’70s and ’80s. I just run with it.”
Fr Dean found music early in life, learning piano at the age of nine and guitar at the age of 10. At university, he experienced a major conversion back to the Catholic faith from which he had fallen away in high school.
Feeling God was calling him to the priesthood following his conversion experience, Fr Dean was ordained a priest with the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate in 2000.
Though he never put down his guitar completely, he moved away from rock and roll when he began to study for the priesthood.
When he became a diocesan hermit in 2017, Fr Dean said he thought his days of recording music were over. Then he started waking up at 3am with complete songs in his head.
“They were like ’70s pop-music songs,” Fr Dean said. “It’s hard to explain. It was just like I could hear horn sections and the drums and the guitar. And I thought, ‘Oh, that’s neat.’ So I would sing these songs in my head. And after I received two or three of them, I realised that I think Our Lord might be calling me to record again.”
Record he did. Fr Dean has now released five albums from the hermitage and occasionally travels to perform his music. The music, he says, is the work of his religious vocation.
FULL STORY
The Rock-and-Roll Priest Recording Chart-Worthy Music in Solitude (By Moira Gleason, National Catholic Register)
