Father John Stanley Gaines died of pneumonia on November 28, 1981, at the Zambarano Memorial Hospital in Pascoag, Rhode Island, where he had been a patient since September 1978. Following services at St. Charles Borromeo Church, his home parish in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, he was buried in the parish cemetery on December 1.

Stanislaus Thomas Gaines was born on March 28, 1911, in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. He attended St. Charles Grade School and Woonsocket High School before enrolling at Providence College, Providence, Rhode Island, in 1928. On August 15, 1930, he began his novitiate at St. Rose Priory in Springfield, Kentucky, where he was assigned John Mary as a religious name and made his first profession in 1931. Philosophical studies followed at the Dominican House of Studies in River Forest, Illinois, and theological courses at St. Joseph Priory in Somerset, Ohio, and at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. He was ordained to the priesthood at Saint Dominic's Church in Washington on June 11, 1937.

After completing his post-ordination studies, Father Gaines remained assigned to the House of Studies in Washington to serve as assistant procurator and a secretary to the newly established publication, The Thomist. In the summer of 1941, his transfiliation to St. Albert the Great Province was completed, and he was assigned directly to St. Pius V community in Chicago as a member of the parish staff and as assistant business manager for the Shrine of St. Jude Thaddeus. From July 1943, to July 1946, he served as a chaplain in the United States Army Air Corps at bases in the States, Guam, and the Marianna Islands. After leaving the Service, be returned to St. Pius V Parish in Chicago with additional duties as director of the Third Order (now Dominican Laity) Chapters in Chicago until 1950, when he was assigned to teach religious at Siena Heights College and at St. Joseph Academy in Adrian, Michigan.

In September 1952, Father Gaines was appointed managing editor of Cross and Crown (now Spirituality Today), a position he retained until poor health forced him to resign in 1976. During this time, he resided at the Dominican House of Studies and at St. Vincent Ferrer Priory in River Forest; Blackfriars (the Provincial Publications Rouse) in Chicago; St. Pius V Priory in Chicago; St. Dominic Priory in Oak Park; and, finally, at the Priory of St. Dominic and St. Thomas in River Forest. In 1961, he was named president of the Commission on Journals, Academic and Professional. Along with his special apostolate in the field of religious publications, he continued to serve as director of local Third Order Chapters and as Assistant Provincial Promoter for the Third Order. He was also spiritual advisor to the Secular Institute of St. Catherine of Siena and to the Chicago Chapter of the Naim Conference for widowed people.

In the fall of 1977, Father Gaines' health began to decline rapidly, and the debilitating effects of chronic encephalitis required that be move from St. Dominic-St. Thomas Priory to special nursing facilities, first in the Chicago area, and finally, near his family home in Rhode Island, where he resided until the time of his death.