Brother Benedict Oliver has lived an extraordinary life, a life driven by his strong belief that God was behind every opportunity presented to him in his life. Brother Benedict was born in 1938 in Philadelphia. He grew up in West Philadelphia, attending the local Catholic grade schools and then graduated from West Catholic, a preparatory school run by the Christian Brothers. It was at West Catholic that Brother Benedict was inspired to become a teacher. He saw how much the teachers enjoyed what they were doing and he realized the “great good” of their work. After talking with the Christian Brothers at his school, he started to consider the Christian Brothers to be a good option for his future. When talking with one of the brothers at West Catholic, Brother Benedict remembers saying, “I’m not holy enough to be a brother” and the brother responded, “No one is holy enough to be a brother. God will take care of that.” After his senior year of high school he entered into the Christian Brothers religious order and found it to be a great fit.

Brother Benedict has had an amazing career as a Christian Brother. He had no plan or agenda for himself, he just happily went where he was needed, believing God would direct him where he was supposed to go. After graduating from LaSalle College, Brother Benedict came to Central Catholic High School, teaching English from 1961 to 1971. In 1972 he became the principal. After five years he believed that it was time for the next step in his journey and wanted someone new to have the opportunity to do his job. In 1977 the Christian Brothers sent Brother Benedict to Calvert Hall High School in Baltimore, Maryland. For two years he taught English at Calvert Hall until he was asked to be the principal at Archbishop John Carroll High School in Radnor, PA. Brother Benedict filled this role for five years until he was asked to be in charge of the student brothers house in Philadelphia. These were men newly entered into the order who needed guidance from a more experienced brother. Because most of these student brothers were at school getting their degrees in theology, Brother Benedict had lots of extra time on his hands. With this time, he went and taught at West Catholic High School in West Philadelphia. In 1991, Brother Benedict and one of his student brothers, Brother Robert Schaefer, drove from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh to once again teach at Central Catholic.

In 1994, Brother Benedict was elected the Provincial of the eastern province. This is an important position in the Christian Brothers, it was his duty to look over all the brothers in his geographic region. This job required a lot of travel, both in the United States and international travel. Brother Benedict had the opportunity to travel a lot of places while doing this job including Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Philippines. “That’s how I got to know the worldwide institute of the brothers,” said Brother Benedict, “I really got a great picture of our institute; it was wonderful.” In 2001, Brother Benedict went to teach at Christ the Teacher Institute for Education in Kenya. There he taught an introduction to university studies, high school administration, and theology. He really enjoyed teaching an introduction to university studies because the people he taught were “terrified” because they had never had this experience before. His students came from all over Africa. Brother Benedict loved what he was doing in Kenya but felt that God’s plan for him continued and it was time to move on. After working in Kenya, Brother Benedict was the principal at Calvert Hall for four years until Brother Richard, the principal of Central Catholic at the time contacted Brother Benedict and asked him to come lead the writing center program that he was starting. In 2009 he returned to the Central Catholic to work at the writing center and still works there to this day.

Brother Benedict has worked as a Christian Brother for almost sixty years. He has seen generations of students come and go from all around the world. He holds a wealth of knowledge in the palm of his hand but is too modest too brag about it. It would definitely be to a student’s advantage to walk down to the writing center at Central Catholic and have a chat with him.