1865 – 1921 (April 10)
Charles Gelasius Medina, son of Antonio Medina and Transito Vieira, was born in Latacunga, Ecuador on October 29, 1865. He received his early education there from the Christian Brothers and entered the Ecuadorian Province of the Order on May 1, 1879 under prior Domenico Filacciani, who some years later taught at Villanova College. Charles entered the novitiate in Quito, Ecuador on August 14, 1880 and took the religious name Gelasius. He was professed on January 1, 1882 and made solemn profession on Laetare Sunday in 1886. He was ordained to the priesthood on January 8, 1893.
After serving in various parishes of his Province, Father Medina immigrated to the United States in 1898 and became affiliated with the American Province in 1905. He first served in Havana, Cuba, and was later stationed in North Troy and Hoosick Falls, NY. He was appointed pastor of Assumption Parish in Lawrence, MA from 1913 to 1914 and then was assigned to St. Nicholas of Tolentine in the Bronx.
He died in the Bronx on April 10, 1921 at the age of 56. Following his Funeral Mass in New York, he was buried in the Community Cemetery at Villanova.
