Fr. Albert "Al" Holmes

A graveside service celebrating the life of Fr. Albert Holmes of Henning, will be held at 11:00a.m. on Wednesday, April 23, with Fr. Michael Kellogg as celebrant at the Crystal Lake Cemetery in Minneapolis, MN. Family and friends may gather on Tuesday at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Flensburg from 5:00 until 8:00 p.m. A vigil led by Father Patrick Hoeft will begin at 7:30p.m. Reverend Albert Arthur Holmes was born on March 26, 1944, in Minneapolis, MN. He was the son of Arthur and Eleanor (Shove) Holmes. After graduating from the University of Minnesota, he entered the seminary. He completed seminary studies at Christ Seminary in Chicago and was ordained a Lutheran minister in New York City in 1975. For the following decade he served parishes in Long Island. Father Holmes started doctoral studies in patristics and history at Fordham University, Bronx, NY. In 1986, he was received into the Catholic Church on the feast of the Assumption, August 15. He began studying for the priesthood at Saint John’s Seminary, Collegeville, MN. Father Holmes was ordained by The Most Reverend Jerome Hanus, OSB, at Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Saint Cloud, on February 6, 1993. He celebrated his First Mass at the Church of St. Andrew in Elk River, MN on February 7, 1993. Father Holmes served in the following pastoral assignments in the Diocese of Saint Cloud: associate pastor, St. Francis Xavier, Sartell, February 1993-May 1993; administrator, St. Joseph, Bertha, and St. Edward, Henning, May 1993-July 1997; pastor, St. Ann, Wadena, July 1997-June 2004; pastor, St. Hubert, Blue Grass, St. John the Baptist, Bluffton, Assumption of Our Lady, Menahga and St. Frederick, Verndale, July 2002-June 2004; pastor/moderator in solidum, St. Hubert, Blue Grass, St. John the Baptist, Bluffton, Assumption of Our Lady, Menahga and St. Frederick, Verndale, and St. Ann, Wadena, July 2004-June 2006; sacramental minister, St. Wendelin, Luxemburg, and St. Mary Help of Christians, St. Augusta, June 2007-December 2008. Father Holmes retired on April 1, 2014. Father Holmes served on the Ecumenical Commission from 1999 through 2001, and as Chaplain at the St. Cloud Hospital from February 2007 to March 2014. He ministered to the Traditional Latin Mass communities at St. John Cantius, St. Cloud, and Sacred Heart, Flensburg. Father Holmes died of natural causes on Monday, April 14, 2025, at his home in Henning, MN. Father Holmes is survived by his sister, Sharon Reemtsma. He was preceded in death by his parents, and sisters, Carol Bossong and Georgianne Kruize, and brothers-in-law, William Bossong and Myron Reemtsma.

Fr. Albert "Al" Holmes

March 26, 1944 - April 14, 2025