Fr. Christopher (Truman) Latimer of the Blessed Sacrament was born on December 26, 1921, in Hartford, Connecticut to parents Truman and Orra (nee Rich) Latimer. He attended Bloomfield High School and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Trinity College in Hartford in 1942. He was chosen class valedictorian.

Father taught French for a year before entering the Army, serving in military intelligence from 1943 to 1946, earning the rank of staff sergeant. He received the Good Conduct and Victory Medals as well as the American Theater Campaign Ribbon.

After his honorable discharge, he entered the Washington Province of Discalced Carmelite Friars. He completed his novitiate in Brookline, Massachusetts and professed his vows on August 6, 1947. He received a Bachelor of Philosophy degree from the Catholic University of America in 1949 and was ordained to the priesthood on June 9, 1952, in the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. He later received a Master of Arts degree in Theology from the College of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Washington, DC.

After ordination, he became rector of students at St. Joseph’s Minor Seminary in Peterborough, New Hampshire from 1953 to 1954; master of novices at the Discalced Carmelite Monastery in Brookline, Massachusetts from 1954-1957, and local superior of the same monastery from 1957-1960. He served two terms as provincial of the Washington Province of Discalced Carmelite Friars from 1960-1966, then became provincial delegate to the Discalced Carmelite Nuns from 1966-1972 while working as a retreat director in Peterborough, New Hampshire from 1966-1970. He was then transferred to the Discalced Carmelite Monastery in Washington, DC where he served as local superior from 1972-1978 and where he remained until declining health required a move to the nearby Jeanne Jugan Residence of the Little Sisters of the Poor in 1988.

Fr. Latimer was a founding member of the Institute for Carmelite Studies. From 1970-1984, he served as editor (and from 1984-1988 as co-editor) of SPIRITUAL LIFE, an award-winning quarterly of contemporary spirituality, published by the Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites.

Father Christopher died on September 19, 1995, is buried at Simsbury Cemetery in Simsbury, Connecticut.