Lawrence Anthony Bender, S.S., was educated at St. Mary’s Elementary and Notre Dame High School in Bryantown, Maryland, from 1931 to 1942; at St. Charles College Seminary in Catonsville, Maryland, from 1942 to 1945; earned a bachelor’s degree at St. Mary’s Seminary on Paca Street in Baltimore from 1946 to 1947; earned S.T.B. and S.T.L. degrees at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore from 1947 to 1951; received a master’s degree from Catholic University in Washington, D.C., in 1953; and earned an S.T.D. degree at the Angelicum in Rome from 1957 to 1958. He was ordained at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., on May 19, 1951, and celebrated his first Mass at St. Mary’s Church in Bryantown, Maryland, on May 20, 1951. His assignments included serving as professor at St. Charles College Seminary in Catonsville from 1951 to 1952; at Solitude, St. Mary’s Seminary on Paca Street in Baltimore from 1952 to 1953; joining the Society of Saint Sulpice in 1953; serving as professor at St. Stephen’s Seminary in Hawaii from 1953 to 1957; as professor at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore from 1958 to 1965; founding a parish in Cuernavaca, Mexico, in 1966; serving as professor at St. John’s Seminary in Plymouth, Michigan, from 1966 to 1967; as director of theology at Seminario Conciliar in Bogota, Colombia, from 1967 to 1968; as director of theology at Seminario Conciliar in Guatemala in 1968; as rector and professor at San Carlos Borromeo Seminary in Rosario, Argentina, from 1968 to 1974; as principal and professor at Samoa Thological College in Western Samoa from 1974 to 1977; as founder and professor at Major Seminary in Panama from 1978 to 1985; and as director of St. Charles Villa and chaplain of St. Martin’s Home in Catonsville, Maryland, from 1985 to 1994.