Bucksport’s friars have listed their home for sale, preparing to bring their presence in the town to a close after decades of public ministry.
Two years after the unexpected death of a founding brother and the closure of their Main Street business, the 34-acre monastery they built on Orcutt Mountain Road is listed for sale for $599,000.
Formally known as the Franciscan Brothers of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, the friars focused on love and service, especially through labor, and approached their businesses as a ministry. That brought them into the communities of Bangor and Bucksport for years.
The Bucksport-based institution was formed by two friends, Donald Martel and Kenneth Soucy, in the 1990s. In 1999, they opened Friar’s Bakehouse on Central Street in Bangor.
Fourteen years later, the friars started a small brewery, and in 2018 they closed their Bangor location to open the Friar’s Brewhouse Tap Room in downtown Bucksport. That location shuttered immediately after Martel’s death.
The sale is a financial necessity now that the businesses are closed, according to the brothers’ Facebook page. But it’s also time to move on, and the two remaining brothers may head to another religious community or a home in Maine, Brother Kenneth Soucy told the Ellsworth American last month.
Soucy told the paper he was thankful for the years spent in the area and would never forget the hospitality of the Bucksport community.
“It’s a privilege to be included in their lives,” Martel told the BDN when the brothers closed their Bangor bakehouse. “We certainly will miss that.”
Their three-story residence features a full commercial kitchen, a library and a chapel. It has two bedrooms and could be converted into 15 total rooms, according to the listing.
Soucy was unavailable for comment Monday.
