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Identical twins and Franciscan Brothers Julian and Adrian Riester – who were born seconds apart – died just hours apart two weeks ago on 1 June.
Both men were admitted to the hospital just days before dying of heart failure. They were aged 92.
Brother Julian died in the morning and Brother Adrian died in the evening, after being told of Julian’s death.
Few who knew them were surprised, and many were relieved, as it would have been hard to imagine one surviving without the other.
The twins, who spent the past three years in retirement at a Franciscan friary in St. Petersburg, had been Franciscan brothers for 65 years.
They were like paired birds of Franciscan brown. If Brother Julian was gardening in front of the friary, Brother Adrian weeded in the back. If Adrian was driving the van, Julian sat by his side. Preparing the altar for chapel, chopping wood for kindling, exulting in ice cream at the Twist & Shake, the identical Riester twins were together, always.
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