Brother Benedict (Troy) Kelley, a perpetually professed member of the Order of Lesser Sisters and Brothers, an ecumenical order of Franciscan men and women.  

He  was born on the 29th of April, in 1982 on the south side of the city of Chicago. Family life for him by many standards was considered normal. He grew up in a rather large family who held on to and practiced the Christian faith. 

Family life was filled with holiday festivities and many weekends on fishing adventures. Education and successful studies were always stressed as apart of his contribution to the family and society as a whole

During his teenage years he was introduced to the Catholic faith at the Faith community of Saint Sabina, as a result of visiting the parish during a boy scout Sunday celebration. Saint Sabina played a major role in His life, because it is where he learned the importance of love for neighbor and experienced first hand the real presence in the Eucharist, the power of prayer as well as holiness being a way of life and not just a denominational affiliation.

In 2001 Benedict began his journey in religion to become a Brother in the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (The Redemptorists). Over the years Brother Benedict has been blessed to have had the opportunity to work with ministers who are on the front lines of the Black Catholic community around the country. 

It has been his pleasure to serve in various parish communities as a pastoral minister specializing in youth and young adult ministry,retreat director, revivalist, sacristan, sick and shut in ministry as well as a companion to the poor and most abandoned. He has served as a successful director of religious education as well as the assistant to the campus minister at Christian Brothers University in Memphis Tennessee.

Brother's latest endeavor was joining with several young men to discern the founding of a community of Franciscan Brothers to serve the needs of the poor and abandoned in the inner city and African American community in the great city of New Orleans.

He has used the title of a song beautifully sung by the late Mahalia Jackson as his motto, " If I can help someone along the way, then my living shall not be in vain".