Br. Leander Patrick
John Francis Craine was born the son of Marie Foley and Joseph Craine in Chicago, Illinois on July 6, 1926. John had two brothers, Neil and Joseph, and two sisters, Margret and Louise. He attended St. Juliana Grade School from 1933 to 1941 when he entered St. George High School in Evanston. After graduation in 1945 John entered the United States Army where he served from January of 1945 until August of 1946. Six months after his discharge from the Army he entered the Novitiate in Glencoe, Missouri. There on May 15th, 1947, he received the religious habit of the Brothers and the religious name of Brother Leander Patrick. A year later Brother Leander Patrick entered the Scholasticate at St. Mary’s College in Winona where he majored in history and minored in English. He received his B.S.S. Degree in 1953 and in the fall of that year began his teaching career at De La Salle High School in Minneapolis. In 1954 he moved to St. Patrick High School in Chicago where he taught for five years before being assigned as Director of the Juniorate in Glencoe. In 1962 he was named Director and Principal of Christian Brothers High School in St. Joseph, Missouri. Brother Patrick was named Director General of La Salle Institute in 1967 and he served in that capacity until 1972 when, for a short time he served as Sub-Director of the Scholasticate in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1973 he returned to La Salle Institute as Sub-Director but was named Director of the Scholasticate in 1975. Patrick completed his M.A. degree from St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California in 1976 and in 1978 was assigned as Director of the Novitiate in Windsor, Ontario. After five years in that position he returned to La Salle Institute as Director General once again. International assignments called him in 1986 when he was appointed Director of the Novitiate in Singapore and in 1989 when he was appointed Director of the Novitiate in Sri Lanka. Patrick returned to the United States and assumed the position of Director of Formation and resided at La Salle Institute. In 1999 he worked in formation in Southern India and Colombo, Sri Lanka. He returned to formation work in the U.S. in 2002. Patrick partially retired to the St. Mary’s College Campus in Winona and volunteered his services in Campus Ministry in 2005. He fully retired in 2008 and moved to Saint Anne’s Extended Care Center in Winona and died on July 24, 2011 at St. Anne’s. His funeral took place in St. Thomas More Chapel on the Campus of St. Mary’s University and he was buried by the side of his fellow Christian Brothers in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Winona. He was eighty-five years of age and had been a De La Salle Christian Brother for sixty-four years.