ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC:

The Roman Catholic community was plunged into mourning over the weekend after 29-year-old Deacon Kevin Bellot died in St Lucia less than 24 hours after complaining of feeling unwell.

Bellot, who graduated in May from Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry, had gone to St. Lucia to do ministry at Our Lady of Assumption parish in Vieux Fort, south of the capital.

He was ordained a deacon in October, 2011 and was expected to be ordained a priest on August 8, 2012. On Friday he complained of stomach pains and was taken to hospital where he died on Saturday morning.

Bellot was a member of the world-wide religious order, the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer or Redemptorists that was founded by Alphonsus Ligouri in 1732 to serve the poor and the most abandoned.

He joined the Redemptorists in 2001 and has worked in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, in inner-city Philadelphia and New York, Boston and St. Lucia.