Benny Solemeo January 18, 1900 to February 3, 1986

LIFE OF Benny Solimeo Picture of Benny on his tractor and Picture of Benny with Brother willy A Divine Word Missionary. They were great friends. Once Bishop George Arh asked Benny how he got along with the 35 women(nuns) at the Monastery and Benny answered, Bishop you have to have a strong back and a weak mind. " Benny ( Bernard) Solimeo Born January 18, 1900- died February 3,1986 Arrived at Bordentown 1921 On the 19th of March,1921, Benny walked up to the front steps of the Poor Clare Monastery, in Bordentown,206 Crosswicks Street, carrying a suitcase. He had come from the Poor Clare Monastery in Philadelphia where he worked and where one of his own sisters, Sister Mary Magdalena, was a nun. Benny also had a blood sister in Evansville, Ind., Sister Mary Alphonsus, Bordentown, NJ Sister Mary Theresa, and in Memphis, Tenn, Sister Mary Bernadette. Benny came to Bordentown with the suitcase having a dead dog jammed in it to be buried in the Holy Ground of Bordentown. Benny came only for a couple of weeks but stayed there for 65 years. When Benny first came the sisters provided living quarters in a little outbuilding in the backyard but it was difficult to heat or cool so they moved Benny to a small room under the second-floor stairs. Latter they gave Benny a two-room apartment with a bath on the second floor. Benny took care of the farmland, milked the cows, did carpentry, shopping and took the Sisters to the doctors, and ran other errands. In the spirit of St. Francis Benny loved the birds. The residents of Bordentown were familiar with the daily scene in the front yard of the monastery: hundreds of birds would line up on the telephone wires just before four o’clock each day and wait to be fed. In 198l Benny was honored with an affiliate membership in the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor for his years of service to the Poor Clares. Benny was buried in the habit of the Order of Friars Minor . His grave is in the cemetery in Bordentown beyond the Old Monastery 0 comments Benny on his tractor and the other picture is Benny and Willy, a borther of the Divine Word Missionary.