Rev. Joseph M. Gariolo, a Barnabite priest who taught Spanish and Italian at Canisius College for 30 years and helped save SS. Columba and Brigid Parish in Buffalo from closing, died Sunday in Kenmore Mercy Hospital. He was 95. Born Giuseppe Gariuolo in Stigliano in the Province of Matera in southern Italy, the only boy among eight children, he entered the Barnabite minor seminary at the age of 13.

He began his novitiate in 1942 at San Felice a Cancello, Italy, until wartime bombing forced his class to transfer to Monza, Italy. Upon completing his studies at the Barnabite Seminary in Rome, he was ordained on April 8, 1950. Assigned to Argentina as a missionary, he studied to become a teacher. While teaching grade school, he completed a master’s degree in Spanish literature and began teaching high school.