Father Robert Charles Landsberger, 87, died Feb. 6 at the St. Cloud Hospital. He had served as a priest of the St. Cloud Diocese for 60 years.
Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 11, at St. Mary’s Cathedral, St. Cloud, with a vigil service at 7 p.m. Visitation will resume on at 10 a.m. Monday, Feb. 12. A Mass of Christian Burial at St. Mary’s Cathedral will be at 11 a.m. Feb. 12, with burial at Assumption Cemetery, St. Cloud.
“The community at St. Francis Xavier School will certainly miss him,” said Kathy Kockler, principal of the school.
“Father Bob’s great-niece, Mary Winter, is on our staff and he would come every Wednesday to share Bible stories and lessons,” Kockler said. “The students absolutely loved his visits and looked forward to them. From him, they learned about how to be good people. In return, he received so much life and love from them.”
Father Landsberger was born Feb. 11, 1930, to Nicholas and Clara (Juenemann) Landsberger in St. Cloud. After elementary school at St. Anthony and St. Mary in St. Cloud, he attended St. Lawrence Seminary in Mt. Calvary, Wisconsin; Theological College of The Catholic University in Washington, D.C., where he earned a master’s degree in philosophy; and St. John’s Seminary in Collegeville.
He was ordained June 1, 1957, at St. Mary’s Cathedral by Bishop Peter Bartholome and celebrated his first Mass June 2 at Holy Spirit Church in St. Cloud.
“Father Bob was a walking encyclopedia of church and saints’ histories” said Tom Offerdahl, business manager at St. Francis Xavier Parish, where he assisted in his retirement. “His homilies always started with the friendly greeting, ‘My dear Christian people’ and he would break open the Scripture from that Mass and enhance it with his stories of life and learning.”
In an interview with The Visitor in May 2017, Father Landsberger spoke of traveling to Rome five times and to the Holy Land. He was a member of the National Library of Poetry and has had over 100 poems printed.
Father Landsberger served in the following assignments: associate pastor, Holy Angels, St. Cloud; instructor, Cathedral High School, St. Cloud; associate pastor, Assumption, Morris; pastor, St. John Nepomuk, Lake Reno; St. John the Baptist, Bluffton; Holy Cross, Butler; St. Henry, Perham; St. Joseph, Pierz; and St. Michael, Motley.
He served as a temporary chaplain at the Veterans Hospital in St. Cloud, twice on the Presbyteral Council and 41 years on the Tribunal. He retired Sept. 1, 2003.
Father Landsberger is survived by sisters, Eileen Quigley, Florine Patowski, and Rachel (Arlen) Dusha; and brothers, Gerald (Betty), Father Nicholas, Ronald (Norma), and Leroy (Linda). He was preceded in death by his parents and his brother, Jerome, and sisters, Audrey VanDuzer and Grace Pick.