Frederic Brussat was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1942. He changed worlds peacefully at home in Claremont, California, on December 13, 2025, from an aortic tear or dissection. His wife Mary Ann and their two Maine Coon cats, Rumi and Shams, were with him. He had valiantly lived a full life with Parkinson’s for 20 years. At his death, he was 83.
Frederic grew up in suburbia and went to Carroll College where he explored history, philosophy, and religion. He then went to seminary in Minneapolis and Philadelphia. Ordained in 1966, he served a parish in Fox Point, Wisconsin, and then as a chaplain at Cornell University in New York. He wrote book and movie reviews to share with other ministers because he knew they didn’t have time to keep up with the popular culture because they had meetings every night.
At Cornell, another chaplain, the priest Daniel Berrigan, encouraged him to take his interest in the arts and the media to New York City. So when Frederic and Mary Ann married 56 years ago, they moved to New York. They lived in the city until 2015 when they came to California to live at Pilgrim Place, an intentional community devoted to justice, peace, and care of the earth.
A common sight: Frederic with stacks of folders full of articles.
Frederic and Mary Ann always worked together, sharing a byline on all their reviews, articles, and books. So it is hard to write about Frederic alone! They co-founded a nonprofit organization now known as Spirituality & Practice in 1972. Its current incarnation is a multifaith website providing resources for spiritual journeys.
Frederic was the principal writer for their coverage of contemporary culture and the spiritual renaissance all those years with Mary Ann editing and handling other things for the organization. Frederic wrote some 8,700 book and audio reviews and 6,400 film reviews plus countless articles about how to apply spiritual practices to everyday life. He and Mary Ann created 57 e-courses on practicing spirituality.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the Brussats published reviews and other resources through Cultural Information Service, a guide to contemporary books, films, music, art, and television. They also produced a series of viewer's guides to television programs and feature films, including many of the groundbreaking movies and miniseries of that era.
In the early 1990s, they decided to focus their attention on the emerging spiritual renaissance. They created the magazine Values & Visions: A Resource Companion for Spiritual Journeys, a mix of reviews and discussion guides which Bill Moyers called "the most original and refreshing guide to what’s truly valuable in American society." They continued this positive approach to new books, spoken-word audios, feature films, and videos/DVDs for other religious and spiritual publications.
In 1996 Frederic and Mary Ann published Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life, a collection of more than 650 examples of spiritual perspectives on everyday experience, which is the basis of a 26-part film series. The book was a national bestseller, and Oprah said she kept a copy on her bedside table.
Their second book, Spiritual Rx: Prescriptions for Living a Meaningful Life, recommends resources and exercises for bringing the Alphabet of Spiritual Literacy into daily life. These 37 practices are common in all the worlds religions. The Brussats are also the authors of two gift paperbacks, 100 Ways to Keep Your Soul Alive and its sequel 100 More Ways to Keep Your Soul Alive.
Frederic said that the Alphabet of Spiritual Literacy was what he hoped would be his legacy. He used the 37 practices as markers of the spiritual life, signs of which he could always find in books, films, and daily experiences. He coded all the content on Spirituality & Practice – the reviews as well as countless articles – according to which alphabet practice it illustrated. In this way, he constantly championed everyday spirituality.
At Pilgrim Place, Frederic finally had an outdoor flower garden.
Frederic was a United Church of Christ clergyman with a journalism ministry. He was a member of Judson Memorial Church, a United Church of Christ congregation in Greenwich Village, New York City. He was also an initiate of the Mevlevi Sufi Order that traces its inspiration to Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi. Frederic’s favorite Rumi poems capture the breadth and depth of the spiritual life that he modeled:
“Something opens our wings. Something
makes boredom and hurt disappear.
Someone fills the cup in front of us.
We taste only sacredness.”
“Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”
In lieu of flowers, donations to support Spirituality & Practice would be very appropriate. You can donate here. Thank you also for your kind remembrances in prayer.
Frederic with Shams and Rumi, when they were kittens.