Dec. 21, 2016

North Bangor – A Mass of Christian Burial for Father Paul V. Beyette, 91, will be held Dec. 23 at 11 a.m. at St. Augustine’s Church.

Bishop Terry R. LaValley will preside and Father William Muench will serve as homilist.

Father Beyette died Dec. 14 at Flaggler Hospital in St. Augustine, Florida.

Burial Will be in St. Augustine’s Cemetery.

Father Thomas E. Kornmeyer, Dean of the Franklin Deanery, will lead the reception of the body at St. Augustine’s Church Dec. 22 at 7 p.m.

Calling hours will follow, concluding with night prayer at 8:30 pm. Calling hours will resume Dec. 23 from 9 a.m. to 10:30.

Father Beyette, who retired in 1995, lived in Loon Lake, New York and wintered in St. Augustine, Florida.
A native of Bangor, he was born May 9, 1925, a son of Horace and Stella (Stone) Beyette. He studied at St. Joseph’s Ursuline Academy in Malone, Wadhams Hall Seminary in Ogdensburg and St. Bernard’s Seminary in Rochester.

Bishop Bryan J. McEntegart, ordained him to the priesthood March 4, 1950 at St. Mary’s Church in Canton.
Following ordination, Father Beyette served as assistant pastor at St. John the Baptist in Keeseville and then at St. Mary’s Church in Champlain.

In 1962 he was named pastor of St. Ann’s Church in St. Regis Falls and later assumed responsibility for the mission of St. Peter’s Church in Santa Clara.

While at St. Ann’s, he became assistant director of Catholic Charities and managed the Malone Catholic Charities office.

Father Beyette moved to Burke to serve as the pastor of St. George’s Church in 1973.

He remained at St. George’s until his retirement in 1995 and continued to serve as pastor emeritus for several more years. 

Father Beyette’s pastoral interests extended beyond his parish duties. He helped found the first psychiatric outreach of the St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center. This grew into the St. Regis Falls Adult Center which provides Franklin County’s seniors with many services and activities.

He served on the Board and Planning Committee for the Franklin County Office for the Aging, the North Country Center of Gerontology’s Elders Planning Board and helped found Pastoral Outreach Service, an ecumenical organization enabling lay service to the homebound.

Father Beyette was a passionate advocate and careful steward of God’s creation and natural resources. He helped found and lead the Diocese’s Faith and Ecology Committee, and his Loon Lake home went off-grid in 1975.

Father Beyette is survived by his sister Atonement Sister Jean Beyette who resides at Graymoor with the Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement.

He is predeceased by a sister, Grace, and two brothers, Leroy and Father Francis Beyette. In lieu of flowers, donations to Catholic Relief Services are appreciated.