Photo Caption: Father Joseph Heyd, OSB, a widely known artist, was a longtime art instructor and chairman of the art department at St. Bede Academy in Peru.

PERU — A funeral Mass was celebrated at St. Bede Abbey Church here on April 5 for Father Joseph Heyd, OSB, a monk and priest of St. Bede Abbey in Peru widely known for his artistic talents.

Father Joseph died Thursday, April 4, at St. Joseph’s Nursing Home in Lacon, where he had resided for eight months. He was 82.

A longtime art instructor and chairman of the art department at St. Bede Academy until his retirement from teaching in 1994, Father Joseph also served for 15 years as part-time associate pastor at St. Joseph’s Parish in Peru.

Abbot Philip Davey, OSB, presided at the funeral Mass. Burial followed in the abbey cemetery.

Born in Peoria on May 1, 1930, to Wilbert and Alice Martin Heyd, he was baptized as James Wilbert at St. Bernard’s Parish. He attended the parish grade school and then Spalding Institute in Peoria, then staffed by monks of St. Bede Abbey.

After attending St. Bede Junior College, he entered the monastic community, making his first profession on July 11, 1951. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., and then studied theology at St. Bede, teaching mathematics and Latin to Academy students.

Following ordination to the priesthood on Sept. 22, 1956, Father Joseph did graduate work in theology for two years at Collegio di Sant’ Anselmo, the international Benedictine university in Rome, earning a licentiate degree.

STUDIED, TAUGHT AND PRODUCED ART
During his college hears he discovered his talent in art, and developed techniques in calligraphy, painting, and sculpture at various institutions, earning a master of fine arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1972.

In addition to his teaching duties at St. Bede Academy, he renovated the abbey’s round cow barn for use as a sculpture studio equipped with a kiln for the production of both ceramic pieces and bronze sculptures. The studio was destroyed by fire in 1997, and was later replaced by a brick art building at St. Bede that contains a small gallery of some of Father Joseph’s art work.

Several of his commissioned works have prominent settings. A bronze statue of violinist Maud Powell, a native of Peru, decorates the community’s downtown plaza. He also created the statue of St. Mark the Evangelist and his symbolic lion that stands outside St. Mark’s Church in Peoria; a bronze statue of St. Francis of Assisi for the village park at Hennepin; an outdoor statue of Mary, Mother of the Church at St. Monica’s Parish in East Peoria (a duplicate is in the grass courtyard at St. Bede), and a steel statue of the Risen Christ in St. Bede Abbey Church.

Father Joseph continued his art work at the abbey on most afternoons while serving at St. Joseph’s in Peru from 1994 to 2009. Upon the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, he returned to St. Bede Abbey, where he remained until his transfer to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home.

In addition to the monastic community of St. Bede Abbey, he is survived by three sisters: Joan Schaber and Patricia Callaway, both of Peoria, and Sister Mary Ann Heyd, OP, of Sinsinawa, Wis. He was preceded in death by his parents and a brother, Charles.

Among other religious vocations in his family in were two maternal uncles who were monks at St. Bede: Father Boniface Martin and Father Patrick Martin. A third uncle, Father Charles Martin, was a priest of the Diocese of Peoria and a fourth Martin brother, James, had been ordained for the diocese but died of influenza a year afterward.