‘Right here with me’: Seminarian experiences the Lord’s closeness amid health scare

A version of this story originally appeared in the January 2026 edition of The True Voice magazine. Copies of the magazine can be found at parishes across the archdiocese.

At age 24, Max Brown is acquainted with suffering and death.

He knows what it’s like to lose beloved relatives.

He knows what it’s like to come close to death himself after he was doused with a high concentration of a dangerous herbicide.

The Cross is a thread woven through Brown’s life, but it’s led him to where he is now, at St. Gregory the Great Seminary in Seward, where he’s in his first year of formation discerning the priesthood.

“God, for some reason, has put death in my life,” he said, “as a special way to see it in a different light.”

Encountering God in suffering helped conform Brown’s heart to Christ, which “led him to take a step to see if the Lord is calling him to be a priest,” said Father Scott Schilmoeller, archdiocese vocations director.

Brown grew up with role models in the faith — including his parents, Brad and Mary Kay Brown, members of St. Francis Borgia Parish in Blair.

A particularly important advocate was his grandfather, Frank “Bud” Subject, a widower who often stayed with the Brown family.

“He went to Mass as often as he could during the week and on Sundays,” Brown said. “He’d always be thumbing through his rosary. As a little kid, I noticed that.”

A young Max Brown is pictured with his grandfather, the late Frank “Bud” Subject. COURTESY PHOTO

The two became close friends, he said, “so his death was very hard for me,” when Brown was just 11.

He also developed a close relationship with his grandfather’s brother, Edward “Edo” Sobczyk, another devout Catholic. When Max was a student at Creighton Preparatory School in Omaha, he would walk to his great-uncle’s home nearby to share dinner or watch old television shows like “Gilligan’s Island.”

During final exams of his freshman year, Brown, 15 at the time, walked to his great-uncle’s house and discovered he’d suffered a stroke. The 96-year-old had been waiting for his great-nephew with a note instructing him to drive him to the hospital.

The great-uncle died a few days later.

The solid foundation of faith provided by his family helped Brown through his trials and gave him a deep respect for the priesthood.

A high school theology project first prompted him to consider the priesthood. When Brown interviewed a priest, the priest’s vocation story resonated with the student.

Those thoughts about a priestly vocation dissipated, though, when Brown went on to college. The summer after high school graduation, life changed in other ways, too.

DANGEROUS EXPOSURE

While the teenager was working at an ag business in South Dakota, a pump at a farm malfunctioned, spraying his whole body with a molasses-thick layer of undiluted Roundup herbicide — even getting into his eyes and mouth.

He said he hadn’t received proper training and was unaware of the chemical’s dangers.

“It wasn’t the Roundup you’d buy at Menard’s or Home Depot,” he said. “You had to mix it 50-to-1 with water.”

Covered in the herbicide, Brown drove 45 minutes back to his workplace and rinsed off at a sink. It wasn’t until later, after work, that he showered.

He experienced flu-like symptoms that night. But the effects of the exposure “didn’t fully catch up with me until about a year later,” he said, “when I lost 50 pounds in less than a month, lost all the hair on my body, (and) food became repulsive.

“It kept getting worse and worse, and I tried to keep fighting through it.”

Back home on break in December 2021, Brown was down to 115 pounds, had to force himself to eat and was experiencing dry heaves, leg pains and sleepless nights.

His mother was shocked when she saw him. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “His glasses were just dangling on his nose because he was so skinny.”

On his parents’ and doctor’s advice, Brown left school and moved home.

PAINFUL TREATMENT, ISOLATION

The doctor had never dealt with a condition like Brown’s. Toxins became stored in every organ in his body and were especially hard on his liver and kidneys, which were starting to shut down.

Without treatment, Brown would have been dead within a year, his doctor told him.

An IV treatment called chelation therapy flushed the toxins out of his body.

“Doing that multiple times helped,” he said.

The treatment was painful, though, causing Brown’s veins “to feel like they were on fire constantly.” He had to force himself to eat.

For about two years he found himself isolated, except for family, while his friends were still in college. That gave him time to reflect.His mother remembers him wanting to go to Mass more often, talking with priests more, “feeling that pull.”

Brown learned to embrace his suffering, the way his relatives had, and to offer his pain to the Lord. He turned to the devotions he learned through them, particularly to the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Pio of Pietrelcina.

Brown said he sensed God speaking to him, especially at Mass, telling him “that He’s right here with me.”

A STEP FURTHER

These experiences encouraged Brown to dive into the faith and better appreciate what happens at the Mass and in the sacraments.

He started thinking about the priesthood again, praying abouthis possible call. He went to the Archdiocese of Omaha website, filled out a quiz, and soon Father Schilmoeller contacted him.

After that, they talked occasionally. Brown’sdiscernment intensified, though, during Advent
2024. “I had a great time just growing with the Lord, seeing His beauty, and I felt called to take the next step further,” he said.

In March 2025, Brown applied to enter the seminary and was accepted.

Now at seminary, he said, he feels healthy and happy.

“The formation here is top-notch,” he said. “The guys here are great … and I’m blessed with a couple of close friends.”

Brown is shown in the chapel at St. Gregory the Great Seminary in Seward.

Father Schilmoeller said Brown, who is often soft-spoken, might be reluctant to talk about his experience. But his story should be told, the priest said, because it’s about more than a vocation.

“Many people are suffering and to hear a story of a young man who experienced deep suffering, almost to the point of death, and how the Lord was with him, is deeply inspiring,” Father Schilmoeller said. “It can be something that stirs hope within the hearts of all of us.”

There’s a lesson, too, for those discerning a call to the priesthood.

“Coming out of this difficult experience, Max has been led to take further steps to discern,” Father Schilmoeller said.

There’s no guarantee a seminarian will become a priest, he said, but a seminary is “the place where he will have all the necessary support and tools to find out.”

“So his story has led to this point,” Father Schilmoeller said of Brown. “We don’t know exactly where it’ll go, but he’s taking seriously the call to find out.”

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