LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Friar Leo Marie Joseph O.S.F. (Leo Joseph Brown) was born in Brooklyn, New York on May 21, 1947, the second son of Joseph Francis Brown and Marie Agnes Theisen.

He grew up in Floral Park, NY, on the edge of New York City. After high school he worked in the city for the church supply firm J. M. Hall and then C.M. Almy as an ecclesiastical designer.

Following the death of his mother in December 1970, he entered a Mariavite Old Catholic Franciscan religious order in New York City and received the Franciscan habit on December 3, 1972, and was henceforth known by his name in religion, Leo Marie Joseph.

After studying for the priesthood within the facilities of the order in New York and Montreal, Canada, Fr. Leo was ordained priest in Montreal by The Most Reverend Thomas J. Fehervary, the Mariavite Old Catholic bishop of Budapest, living in exile in Montreal.

While continuing his design work, Fr. Leo served as a priest at The Church of the Beloved Disciple, the parish of the order in New York City, and was very active in the beginning gay and lesbian rights movement.

In 1979 he relocated to San Francisco and after several months on a teaching project in Nigeria, Fr. Leo began working with elderly shut-ins under the auspices of a Syro-Chaldean monastic community. At this time he studied the theological and liturgical traditions of that branch of Christianity.

As the AIDS epidemic emerged in the early 1980s he began ministering to the dying and their families in San Francisco.

In 1985 Fr. Leo arranged the purchase of property in Kelseyville that would become Little Portion Hermitage. At the end of 1989 he and two lay brothers were able to relocate to the property, where Fr. Leo designed and built the Oratory of Saint Georges on the property.

Fr. Leo made his first formal contact with St. John’s Episcopal Church in Lakeport, Calif., in June 1990. This led to his being received into The Episcopal Church, as a life professed religious in 1995 and then as a priest in 1997, by The Rt. Rev. Jerry A. Lamb, bishop of the Diocese of Northern California.

From then on he served with the regional missioner, The Rev. Harry Allagree, as associate priest at St. John’s and at Holy Trinity, Ukiah.

In January 2004 Fr. Leo was asked to be interim pastor of St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Fort Bragg where he oversaw the construction of a new educational building and the renovation of the parish hall and kitchen.

From Fort Bragg he was called to serve as interim pastor of Christ Church, Eureka, and the Mission of Saints Martha and Mary, Trinidad, in February, 2006. There he oversaw the renovation of the children's chapel and guided the complete rebuilding of the church interior in preparation for the installation of a new pipe organ, designing many of the details himself.

Fr. Leo returned to his beloved Hermitage in September 2008 and resumed serving St. John's until he was officially appointed as priest in charge in November 2009 by The Rt. Rev. Barry Beisner, bishop of the Diocese of Northern California.

A year later he was unfortunately diagnosed with neuro-endocrine cancer, but continued to minister at his beloved St. John’s until his retirement on Oct. 26, 2014.

Fr. Leo died at the Hermitage on Jan. 23, 2015.

Fr. Leo nurtured his love of art, architecture, history and good food by his extensive travels in Europe where he sustained many close friendships.

He maintained close ties with the Old Catholic Church in the Netherlands and made two pilgrimages to Assisi, the city of St. Francis, and to Plock, Poland, the location of the original Mariavite monastery.

In his last months Fr. Leo was lovingly cared for by the team of Hospice of Lake County and many dear friends, especially his assistant, Roland Simpson and Mischa Workman.

He is survived by his two brothers, Paul Valentine Brown of Brooklyn, New York, and James Michael Brown of Hartford, Conn.

A memorial service to be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11, at St. John's Episcopal Church, 1190 N. Forbes St. in Lakeport.

A reception will follow in the Parish Hall and Committal of the Ashes afterwards at Little Portion Hermitage, 9233 Highway 175, Kelseyville, CA 95451.

It is requested that donations in Fr. Leo’s memory be made to St. John’s Episcopal Church, Lakeport Calif.