Henry Smolenaars, 40, was born and raised in Nova Scotia on a dairy farm. He loved working with his hands, so after high school he became an industrial electrician.

As a teen, thoughts of being a priest had come to him. But it took some time to make the call.

“I ran from the call as long as I could,” he said.

Editor’s note: This is one in our series of profiles on the men who will graduate from St. Augustine’s Seminary this spring and be ordained to the priesthood for various dioceses.

Jeffery Oehring, 25, was born and raised in Walkerton, Ont. It was during his high school years that he began to wrestle with some of the big mysteries in life with the “God Question” being at the heart of it all.

“During my years in high school, one of the most important things for me was to try to figure out, ‘Why am I here? What’s the meaning of my life?’ ” he said. “One of the most frustrating things for me was when teachers and friends would come up to you and say, ‘So what are you going to do with your life? What do you want to be? What university are you going to? And what program are you going to study?’ ”

{mosimage}Editor’s note: This is one in our series of profiles on the men who will graduate from St. Augustine’s Seminary this spring and be ordained to the priesthood for various dioceses.

Landorff José García Mariona, 34, was born in San Salvador, El Salvador. He is the oldest of three brothers, and his family immigrated to Canada in 1987.

{mosimage}Editor’s note: This is one in our series of profiles on the men who will graduate from St. Augustine’s Seminary this spring and be ordained to the priesthood for various dioceses.

Silvio Eljuga, 41, was born in Zagreb, then part of communist Yugoslavia, now Croatia. During his youth he lived a life separated from God and the church. Different difficulties in his life, especially the war that raged in his country in the 1990s, urged him to rethink his attitude. 

“However difficult this situation was, God brought something good from this evil.

Editor’s note: This is one in our series of profiles on the men who will graduate from St. Augustine’s Seminary this spring and be ordained to the priesthood for various dioceses.

Kim D’Souza was born into an Indian family living in Nigeria. During his childhood there, D’Souza was greatly influenced by his parish priest, an Irish missionary who gave him an ardent love for the faith and the Catholic Church.

TORONTO - Two years ago Ignacio Pinedo was to be ordained a missionary priest with the Scarboro Missions religious community based in Toronto, but close to his ordination date the superior asked him to take some time off to discern his call.

TORONTO - When Jorge Lopez joined Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Toronto nine years ago he didn’t speak a word of English. Still, he left his family behind in Nicaragua to follow his call to the priesthood.

TORONTO - It was an overwhelming sense of gratitude that  caused Giuseppe Scollo to give up his family and life in Sisley, Italy to follow his call to the priesthood.

TORONTO - Zachary Romanowsky heard his call to the priesthood while staying at Madonna House in Combermere, Ont.

Editor’s note: this is one in a series of articles on the men from Toronto’s St. Augustine’s Seminary and Redemptoris Mater Seminary who will be ordained as priests this spring.