On Saturday June 29, 2024 Brother Martin J. Zatsick, T.O.R., a member of the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular, Province of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, was called home to the Lord at the age of 75 and after 56 years of religious life . He died at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, due to complications from a subdural hemorrhage.
After Brother Marty professed solemn vows in 1972, he spent the next ten years serving our friars with his culinary skills in several of our institutions in Pennsylvania and with the formation community in Toronto, Canada. During his time in Canada Marty felt a call to share his ministry in the Province’s foreign mission of Brazil in the Diocese of Borba, about a thousand miles up the Amazon river from the southern coast of the country. Following his time in Brazil he moved on to live and work with our friars in the Republic of South Africa.
He served in the foreign missions for a total of four years. On his return to the United States, Marty accepted a long-term assignment at Saint Mark Church in Lake Andes, South Dakota, where he ministered to the Native American Indians for 16 years. He continued his ministry of helping others when he was assigned as the Director of the Dorothy Day Center in Loretto for four years. He then moved on to Queen of Peace Friary in Pittsburgh in 2016 where he was the Local Minister. While at Queen of Peace Friary, Marty was widely known for his daily walks around town. He had an amazing talent and desire to connect with people and to assure them of their goodness and God’s love for them. It has been mentioned many times by his brother friars that he was a kind and gentle person with a wonderful sense of humor: “Everyone loved Marty.”
Brother Marty was born on December 18, 1948 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the son of the late George and Anne Rose (Marino). He is preceded in death by his brother-in-law David L. Smith, Jr. and is survived by his sister, Catherine Smith and brother Edward Zatsick, his nieces Sumer Smith and Kim (Craig) Kerr and their children Kyle, Tera and Hunter, his great grandniece Aubrie Kerr and great grandnephew, Blake Mitten, and numerous relatives and friends.
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on Saturday, July 6, 2024 at St. Francis Friary at Mount Assisi with the Very Rev. Joseph Lehman, T.O.R., Minister Provincial as principal celebrant. Following the Mass, interment took place at the Franciscan Friars’ Cemetery on the campus of Saint Francis University in Loretto.