FALL RIVER, Mass. — Word has been received of the March 12, 2009 death in Boston of Father Callistus M. Bamberg, 74, a Franciscan friar and a former teacher at Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth.

Father Bamberg, a Franciscan for 53 years and a priest for 48 years, died from circulation complications at Tufts New England Medical Center. 

Born in Cambridge, the son of the late Frederick and Mary (McIntyre) Bamberg, he was received into the Order of Friars Minor on Aug. 12, 1954.

Following philosophical and theological studies at St. Francis College in Rye Beach, N.H., Holy Name College in Washington, D.C., and Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora, N.Y., he was ordained a priest on Feb. 25, 1961 in Washington.

Locally, Father Bamberg taught mathematics at Bishop Stang High School from 1969 to 1981 while in residence at Our Lady’s Friary in New Bedford. 

His other assignments included pastoral associate at St. Anthony’s Shrine in Boston; director of the St. Francis Chapel in Albany, N.Y.; as pilgrimage chaplain and later director of the Franciscan Pilgrimage Office in New York; and as a teacher at Archbishop Walsh High School in Olean, N.Y. 

Father Bamberg retired to St. Anthony’s Friary in St. Petersburg, Fla., in May 2004.

He leaves a sister-in-law, Kathleen Bamberg of Revere; and cousins and nephews.

His funeral Mass was celebrated March 16 in St. Anthony Shrine Chapel in Boston. Burial was in St. Agnes Cemetery in Menards, N.Y.