Mount St. Mary’s University President Thomas H. Powell sadly announces the death of long-time professor of Theology, Fr. Robert Zylla O.S.C. , of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary. Fr. Zylla had been hospitalized for the past two months as he battled esophageal cancer at Gettysburg Hospital. He was 82 years old.

Fr. Zylla taught at the Mount for 38 years, and despite his illness, finished teaching the semester this past May. During his time at the Mount, it’s estimated that he taught half of the 1200 priests who have graduated from the Mount and 80 percent of all the priests and six current bishops serving the Church in the United States today.

“Fr. Zylla was simply an extraordinary gentleman and an exemplary priest,” said President Powell. “He was a favorite of students and will long be remembered for his gentleness, quick wit, superb intelligence and his teaching of the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. He also held a special place in his heart for St. Odilia, patron saint of the Crosier order.”

Several members of the clergy and Mount community were with him at the time of his death. Fr. Zylla passed away during the Litany of the Saints after the intercessions of St. Odilia and St. Thomas Aquinas, his patron.

Several services are planned to celebrate his life and the many gifts he has given the Mount community.

The parishioners of St. Mary’s Catholic Shrine in Barnesville, Maryland will hold a wake and viewing on Monday, August 3, from 2 to 4 p.m. with a Mass immediately following. His body will be transported to the Mount, where he will lay in state in St. Bernard’s Chapel. On Tuesday, August 4, a funeral Mass will take place at 11:00 a.m. in the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception on the Mount campus. Fr. Zylla will be buried with his brother priests in Minnesota.

St. Odilia, our help and our hope in all our needs, pray for us.
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord,
And let Perpetual Light shine upon him.