Detroit — Fr. Daniel J. Fraser passed away Nov. 28 at the age of 79, one of the few people to receive all seven sacraments.

He was born in Detroit in 1943, the fifth of six children, and moved with his family to northwest Detroit after his father died in a plane crash. He attended Precious Blood Grade School and Detroit Catholic Central High School, from which he graduated in 1951.

He entered a Trappist monastery in Dubuque, Iowa, for seven years, but became ill with lead poisoning after working with lead paint in the monastery’s basement.

The future Fr. Fraser decided to go to college at University of Detroit, and met Christine M. Jadczak, who would later become his wife. He learned that Jadczak herself had spent a period of time in religious life until developing multiple sclerosis, and being too ill to continue at the convent.

The two were married on July 1, 1961, and later had nine children. While raising his family, Daniel Fraser taught at Catholic Central High School, and later became assistant principal of Cabrini High School in Allen Park.

Following the high school’s closure in 1976, the family moved to Monroe, where he was the director of religious education at St. John the Baptist Parish and St. Mary Parish.

He and his wife owned and operated Joy Christian Book Store in Monroe for seven years, and also held six-week workshops for married couples three times a year for 16 years.

In 1968, he felt called to the diaconate, and was ordained with the first permanent diaconate class in the Archdiocese of Detroit in 1971. He served as deacon at Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Plymouth, St. John the Baptist and St. Mary’s.

After his wife passed away, several clergy friends suggested he consider joining the priesthood. Since he already had a master’s degree in theology and had spent 31 years as a permanent deacon, he only needed a few years in the seminary before his ordination in the Diocese of Toledo, Ohio, in June 1999.

He served as associate pastor of St. Peter Parish in Mansfield, Ohio, pastor of St. Agnes Parish in Toledo, and pastor of St. Patrick of Heatherdowns Parish in Toledo.

Lorie Bronson, pastoral minister and Christian service coordinator at St. Mary Parish, said she remembers working with Fr. Fraser when he was a deacon. She later relied on his service to the parish as a priest once he retired and returned to Monroe.

“He was always a teacher to the children, with kindness, compassion and mercy. He did many things for the parish, and he did them with a sense of simplicity, reverence and respect,” Bronson said.

She added that he even wrote a series of books, now available in local Catholic bookstores, called “Father Grandpa’s Reflections,” which were “lessons on life,” as well as several books of homilies.

Philip Harrigan was a longtime friend to Fr. Fraser since before he was even a deacon, and said that when they first met in Monroe, their families had a lot in common, including disabled family members.

Harrigan recalled a story Fr. Fraser once told him: “He said that when he was very young he came down with a very serious disease. The doctors couldn’t find a cure and gave up, so the family took him home and put him in his crib. His grandmother, who was a woman of great faith, took a statue of the Blessed Mother and laid it in his crib.”

The next morning, Harrigan remembers learning, “he was cured of his disease. He always had a devotion to the Blessed Mother because of that. He retained the statue in his living room and kept vigil candles with it.”

Harrigan said Fr. Fraser was a very good friend.

“He used to hold Masses at his house for the people who were very close to him,” Harrigan said. “My wife and I would attend. Then she came down with bone cancer and couldn’t get out, and so he held the Masses at our condominium. He was a very good, a very generous guy.”

Fr. Fraser is preceded in death by his wife, his parents and his three brothers: Fr. Thomas, Jerry and William. He is survived by his two sisters, Nancy and Mary, as well as his children Joseph, Marie, John, Thomas, Theresa, Paula, Bernard, Joan and Ann, as well as 17 grandchildren.

Fr. Fraser was laid to rest at St. Joseph Cemetery in Monroe. Donations may be made to Toledo Priests Retirement Fund, or the Association of Retarded Citizens (ARC) of Monroe.