Lawrence Eugene Brandt

Lawrence Brandt was born in Charleston, West Virginia, the son of Lawrence E. and Priscilla (Purdy) Brandt, and he has two sisters. He would pretend to celebrate the Mass as a child, using a small workbench as an altar, Necco Wafers as hosts, and one of his father’s architectural manuals as the lectionary. The family later moved to Pennsylvania, where Brandt attended St. John the Evangelist School in Girard. He then studied at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio.

Brandt studied in Austria at the University of Innsbruck, obtaining his doctorate in philosophy in 1966. He also completed his theological studies at the Pontifical North American College and Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained to the priesthood on December 19, 1969, in St. Peter's Basilica.

Brandt then attended the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, and served in the nunciatures to Madagascar, Germany, Ecuador, and Algeria from 1973 to 1981, when he left the Vatican's diplomatic service for family reasons. Upon his return to the United States, Brandt was incardinated into the Diocese of Erie, where he served as vice-chancellor and chaplain of Gannondale Residential Center for Girls before returning to Rome to obtain his doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Lateran University in 1983 which was audited by Tarcisio Bertone, SDB. A graduate of the Universities of Paris and of Florence as well, he was named Honorary Prelate of His Holiness in 1991 and pastor of St. Hedwig Church in Erie in 1998.

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