Bucksport’s small order of Franciscan friars has sold its home, completing a move south from the region where its members were well-known business owners for decades.
Kenneth Soucy and Donald Martel came to Bucksport in the late 1990s as the Franciscan Brothers of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, a Catholic order.
They focused on love and public service, especially through labor, and saw the popular cafes they ran in Bangor and Bucksport as a ministry to the community.
Martel and Soucy opened Friar’s Bakehouse in downtown Bangor in 1999, serving baked goods, soups and sandwiches until moving closer to home in 2018 with a cafe and brewery on Bucksport’s Main Street that closed immediately after Martel’s sudden death in 2023.
Without income from their business, Soucy and another remaining member decided this spring to list their 15-room home and monastery on Orcutt Mountain Road in Bucksport. They also felt it was time for a fresh start, Soucy previously said.
The 34-acre property sold in late July to Diane and Richard Levitt of New Hamburg, New York, according to Hancock County deed records.
The new owners intend to continue using it as a residential property, listing agent Jim Stoneton said Wednesday. While the sale process was standard, he said marketing the property was unique because it included a chapel and was laid out for more dormitory-style living.
Soucy didn’t return a request for comment, but the brothers’ Facebook page now listed them as located in New Gloucester.
