Bucksport’s small order of Franciscan friars has sold its home, completing a move south from the region where its members were well-known business owners for decades.

Kenneth Soucy and Donald Martel came to Bucksport in the late 1990s as the Franciscan Brothers of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, a Catholic order.

They focused on love and public service, especially through labor, and saw the popular cafes they ran in Bangor and Bucksport as a ministry to the community.

Martel and Soucy opened Friar’s Bakehouse in downtown Bangor in 1999, serving baked goods, soups and sandwiches until moving closer to home in 2018 with a cafe and brewery on Bucksport’s Main Street that closed immediately after Martel’s sudden death in 2023.

Without income from their business, Soucy and another remaining me

See Full Page