On July 4, 2026—the first Saturday of the month and the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America—at approximately 11:30 PM at the religious house on Eden Hill in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Fr. Richard Drabik, MIC, passed away and received his well-deserved reward in eternity. He lived to be 92 years old, including 73 years in religious life and 66 years in the priesthood.
During his long life, Fr. Richard held many positions of responsibility within the community; superior of the religious house, novice master, director of the Association of Marian Helpers in US, and, from 1981 to 1988, superior of the American Province of St. Stanislaus Kostka.
His whole life, he was a zealous apostle of the message of Divine Mercy and the author of many initiatives related to promoting this devotion in the United States, such as the production of the world’s first feature-length film on the history of the Divine Mercy devotion: Divine Mercy: No Escape, the translation of St. Faustina’s Diary and her biography into English, as well as the preparation in Stockbridge of the first Polish edition of the Diary, which was subsequently printed in Rome with financial support from the Marians and secretly distributed to Poland, hidden from the communist authorities.
The funeral services were held at the National Shrine of Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, MA, and the deceased was laid to rest at the Marian Fathers’ cemetery on Eden Hill.