The Rev. Stephen “Steve” Adrian, the longtime priest of the Church of St. Matthew on St. Paul’s West Side, touched many lives as a spiritual leader and as an active community member who sought to help others.

“[Adrian] had his natural family, us, but I think the people of the parish and the people of the community he also considered like family, and they were very important to him. He loved them intensely,” said Ann Koves, one of his sisters.

Months after announcing his cancer diagnosis in March of this year, Adrian died Dec. 1 at age 82.

Beginnings and time as a priest

Born in St. Paul on April 15, 1942, Adrian went to Catholic grade school, where he had the opportunity to get to know the priests of the parish, Koves said. Around eighth grade, one of the priests proposed the idea of Adrian going to Nazareth Hall Preparatory Seminary — now the site of the University of Northwestern, St. Paul — which sparked the idea of him becoming a priest.

During his time at Nazareth Hall, Koves said he continued going to school during his time off and spent a few summers taking advanced classes in liturgy at the University of Notre Dame.

Adrian was ordained as a priest on Dec. 8, 1968 and served at the Church of the Incarnation and at St. Leonard of Port Maurice, both in Minneapolis, before coming to the Church of St. Matthew in 1978. He served at St. Matthew’s for 34 years until his retirement in 2012.

Adrian’s close friend, Rev. Martin Warren, said he had a gift for connecting with parishioners and had a powerful impact of drawing people into the community.

“He was also very good in terms of making that personal connection in times of need, in times of sadness and in times of joy, too,” Warren said. “One thing he was well known for was being a great storyteller. In fact, if you listen to his preaching, he would often use stories which connected at a personal level with people in the congregation and that made, for them … the Gospel come alive.”

‘Holistic community development’

Warren added that he was key to developing programs and initiatives to meet the various needs, something Adrian called “holistic community development.”

“The ministry, the parish, his ministry, and the people’s ministry was trying to create holistic community development. It’s that sense of the community or the church, plus the community in all these other areas are inextricably linked,” Warren said. “Therefore, that’s what he saw as important and what he helped do in terms of setting up different programs.”

Adrian was involved with the Neighborhood Development Alliance, which worked to acquire federal urban renewal funds to create new housing and rehabilitate current housing. He also was instrumental in starting a child care center and implementing services from St. Mary’s Health Clinics, an organization that provides free medical care to low-income individuals without insurance.

Adrian was passionate about Catholic education and advocated for ensuring it remained accessible regardless of financial circumstances, according to Bridget Kramer, the principal of the Community of Saints Regional Catholic School. Adrian served as the canonical administrator of the school for nine years before stepping down last spring.

Along with a few other community members, Adrian started a group whose primary goal was to fundraise solely for tuition assistance, Kramer said. The program started before the regional school formed in 2012, and as of last summer, has raised more than $4 million for tuition support.

Exemplified by his work with the community school, Kramer said Adrian has left a legacy that has touched many lives on St. Paul’s West Side.

“He was not someone to talk about himself and he’s someone that everyone on the West Side knows to some capacity,” Kramer said. “Yet, he’s never the person who is the loudest in the room. His leadership and his ability to touch others was his actions and his ability just to be.”

There will be a visitation from 3 to 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 20, followed by a vespers service and an overnight vigil until 7 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 21. After, a visitation will take place at 9:30 a.m. until the Mass of Christian Burial at 11 a.m. All services will take place at the Church of St. Matthew, 510 Hall Ave., St. Paul. More information can be found at st-matts.org.

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