The Marist Brothers in the United States, 1914

Last updated on: February 11, 2011 at 5:55 am by Pat McNamara

The Marist Brothers in the United States, 1914 2011-02-11T05:55:00-07:00 Pat McNamara

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St. Ann’s Academy was founded on Manhattan’s Upper East Side in 1892. During its early years it doubled as a military academy, as this 1914 photo of the students in vintage Civil War uniforms indicates. In 1957, the school was relocated to the Briarwood section of Queens and renamed Archbishop Molloy High School. However, its students still call themselves “Stanners.” Its alumni include actor Carroll O’Connor and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. (Comedian Ray Romano also briefly attended the school.)

MARIST BROTHERS OF THE SCHOOLS
Introduced into the United States in 1890

This religious congregation founded in the year 1817, in the diocese of Lyons (France), by the Ven. Joseph Benedict Marcellin Champagnat, priest, member of the Society of the Marist Fathers, has for its aim the education of youth. It has been approved by the Holy See in 1863. The method of teaching children and conducting schools has been handed down to the brothers by their founder. It is contained in the guide for schools, and so fruitful had been the application of the educational principles it explains, that at the death of Ven. Champagnat in 1840 the institute had a membership of 280 brothers with 48 schools.

Founder Marcellin Champagnat (1789-1840) was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1999.

Even before 1840 many brothers had been sent to Oceanica to help the fathers of the society of Mary in their missionary work and open schools. Under the administration of Brother Francis and Brother Louis Mary, immediate successors to the venerable founder, schools and colleges were established in Australia, Cape Colony, and New Zealand. Brother Theophane, fourth Superior-General of the institute, sent brothers to open schools in China, Brazil, Columbia, Canada, and in the United States.

During the administration of this energetic man, the society extended also its work in nearly all the countries of Europe and in North America. At the present the brothers have in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, more than seventy schools of different grades with six novitiates and normal schools for the training of teachers. In South America the number of colleges, academies and common schools amounts to eighty.

In 1905, the Marists purchased the Thomas McPherson estate in Poughkeepsie, New York. It served as the starting point for the campus of the present-day Marist College, founded in 1929.

From Canada, where the first school of the Marists was established in 1885, the brothers extended their work in the diocese of Manchester, N.H. They had been called there in 1880 by the Rev. Mgr. Herey then pastor of St. Mary’s church. They were greatly encouraged in their good work by the Rt. Rev. Bradley first bishop of the diocese.

In 1942, the Marists purchased 120 acres of land in Esopus, New York. (Several religious communities had property in this area.) It was used as a training site for future Brothers. Eventually it became the nucleus for a separate province, the Esopus Province. Brother Linus William, F.M.S., (seen above) served as the first Provincial. Today the Esopus property serves as a retreat house.

In 1892 at the request of the pastor in charge of St. Jean the Baptist, 76th Street, New York, and with the approbation of Archbishop Corrigan, five brothers opened there a school for the children of the parish. This school, under the direction of Brother Lephiriny, became very prosperous, and two years after St. Ann’s Academy was organized with a separate staff of teachers.

A group of new Marist Brothers at Esopus, 1954.

Archbishop Corrigan as well as his successor showed himself a friend to the brothers, and encouraged Brother Cesidius, the Provincial, to take charge of other schools in the archdiocese. In 1892 the schools of Lawrence and Lowell, Mass., were established. In 1903, St. Joseph of Haverhill, St. Agnes, New York; in 1909, St. Peter, Poughkeepsie, and in 1910 St. Paul, New York.

At the close of 1910 the brothers of the United States, who till that time had been under the direction of the Provincial of Canada, were to form a special province, the residence of the Provincial being Poughkeepsie in the archdiocese of New York. A property had been acquired by the brothers in 1908 for the purpose of establishing there a novitiate and normal school. The statistics of 1910 give for the institute a total of 5,769 brothers with 631 schools in which 92,034 pupils receive Christian education.

The Catholic Church in the United States of America, Undertaken to Celebrate the Golden Jubilee of His Holiness, Pope Pius X (Volume I) (1914).

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