Benedictine Father Joseph Jensen – a noted Biblical scholar, a monk at St. Anselm’s Abbey in Washington, D.C. for 78 years and a priest for more than 70 years – died July 14, 2026, at the age of 101.
A native of Mannheim, Illinois, Father Jensen grew up in Chicago and lived through the Great Depression. He was a student at Lane Technical High School when the Second World War began, and already enrolled in ROTC at his school, he was called up to active duty at the beginning of his final semester. He then spent three years serving in the military during World War II.
While training to be a pilot for the Army Air Corps, the future priest met Benedictine Father Charles O’Laughlin, a monk at St. Anselm’s who was serving as a military chaplain and who inspired Father Jensen to pursue a life of “ora et labora” (“pray and work’), the traditional motto of the Benedictines.
After his honorable discharge from the Army, Father Jensen arrived at St. Anselm’s Abbey in 1946 and made his solemn profession in 1951. Following a brief departure to study theology in Rome, he returned to Washington, D.C., where he ordained a priest in 1954.
Following his ordination, Father Jensen studied Scripture and Semitics at the Benedictine Athenaeum of Sant’Anselmo in Rome, as well as at The Catholic University of America. He later earned his licentiate and doctorate in that field.
At St. Anselm’s, Father Jensen taught young monks preparing for ordination and also offered courses in both Scripture and mathematics in the abbey school until 1965. He taught Scripture at CUA from 1961 until his retirement in 2008.
During his scholarly career, he was a prolific author of articles, and he published five books, including the widely used textbook, God’s Word to Israel.
He also served as executive secretary of the Catholic Biblical Association from 1961 until 2012. His tenure marked him as one of the most influential administrative and scholarly contributors in the organization’s modern history.
Father Jensen was chair of the Thomas Verner Moore Lecture series named in honor of the priest who founded St. Anselm’s Abbey and who pioneered a Catholic approach to psychiatric research and treatment.
In fact, Father Jensen was the only member of St. Anselm’s community who personally knew the founder of that abbey.
Father Jensen received the Catholic Biblical Quarterly Award on his 80th Birthday. In 1983, he received the Papal Benemerenti Medal, awarded by the pope to clergy and laity for long and exceptional service to the Catholic Church.
“While we at the abbey were well aware of the excellent work he did for the Catholic Biblical Association at his office over at Catholic University, above all else we saw him as a devout and charitable monk, always willing to assist anyone in need,” St. Anselm’s Abbey Abbot James Wiseman told the Catholic Standard. “He never doubted that Benedictine life was what God had called him to embrace, and he did this very faithfully.”
As a monk of the abbey, Father Jensen was long respected for his dedication to Benedictine life, and was faithful in all of the community duties, even assisting well into his 90s with the cleaning up of the refectory after the main meal each day.
He was also known for his faithfulness to the Eucharist and to the Liturgy of the Hours.
A Mass of Christian Burial was offered July 18, at the abbey, with burial in the adjacent cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St. Anselm’s Abbey.
