New Orleans-Santa Fe District, 2011
Christian Brothers—Pioneer Educators
in the South and Southwest
since 1851 who died in July
1. None
2. 2007: Brother Brendan Gabriel (Raymond J.
Wilkinson) died in the brothers’ retirement community at De
La Salle in Lafayette, Louisiana, at the age of 87. He was born
in New Orleans, Louisiana, on February 12, 1920, and entered
the junior novitiate at De La Salle in Lafayette in 1933. He was
robed in the brother’s garb in the novitiate there on August 14,
1936, and 12 months later was sent to study two years in the
scholasticate at Sacred Heart Training College in Las Vegas,
New Mexico. He taught at St. Paul’s College (high school) in
Covington, Louisiana, 1939-1943, Kirwin High School in
Galveston, Texas, 1943-1951, St. Michael’s High School in
Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1951-1952, St. Michael’s College in
Santa Fe, 1952-1953, and De La Salle High School in New
Orleans, Louisiana, 1953-1955. He had spent many of his
summers completing successively the bachelor’s degree at St.
Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, and the master’s
degree in library science at Louisiana State University in Baton
Rouge, Louisiana. He was appointed head librarian of St.
Michael’s College in Santa Fe in 1955 and remained 33 years,
until his retirement in 1988. His legacy there was an excellent
collection and a tradition of service to students and faculty. He
retired to New Orleans to provide a basic education for the
illiterate and the under-educated residents of Hope House, a
government housing project for poor black families. In this
ministry he expressed his creativity and dedication in serving
the poor. Failing health forced him to retire to Lafayette in
2002.
3. 1981: Brother August Raymond (Raymond
Ogden) died in the brothers’ retirement community at De La
Salle in Lafayette, Louisiana, at
the age of 68. He was born in
New Orleans, Louisiana, on
January 10, 1913, and entered
the junior novitiate at De La
Salle in Lafayette in 1927. He
received the brother’s robe in
the novitiate there on February
1, 1929. He spent the spring
semester of 1930 and the
following school year studying
in the scholasticate at Sacred
Heart Training College in Las
Vegas, New Mexico. He was assigned to be on the founding
faculty of Kirwin High School in Galveston, Texas, in 1931 and
taught there nine years. He spent his summers earning both the
bachelor’s and the master’s degree at St. Mary’s University in
San Antonio, Texas. In 1940 he was sent to obtain the doctor’s
degree at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.,
the first brother in the district to earn it. He taught in the
scholasticate at Sacred Heart Training College in Las Vegas,
New Mexico, 1943-1947, and was on the founding faculty as a
professor and academic dean of St. Michael’s College in Santa
Fe when it opened as a four-year college in 1947. He was
appointed director of the brothers’ community there in 1954 and
acting president of the college in August 1957 after the sudden
death of the founding president, Brother Benildus of Mary
(Louis Avant). He had the year 1958-1959 off for special
studies at the brothers’ international motherhouse in Rome and
a second year for advanced studies in religious education at
Louvain University in Brussels, Belgium. He resumed his
professorship of political science at St. Michael’s College in
1960 and continued until 1978, when failing health forced him
to retire.
4. 1955: Brother Alton (Pierre Boncompain) died
in the brothers’ retirement home in Athis-Mons, France, at the
age of 82. He was born on May 3, 1872, in Yssingeaux in the
French department of Haute Loire and attended the brothers’
school there. He entered the junior novitiate in Paris in
November 1888 at the age of 16 and began the year-long
novitiate there with the reception of the brother’s robe on May
4, 1889. In the St. Joseph scholasticate in Paris he fulfilled the
requirements for the elementary teaching license and was
assigned to St. Nicolas d’Igny school in Paris in 1891. He
taught there 15 years, except for two years of required military
service, 1894-1896. The French antireligious laws of 1904
forced the closure of the school in 1906, and Brother Alton,
along with most of the brothers of his community, chose to
leave his native land to continue his religious life and
educational mission overseas. In the fall of 1906 he took an
intensive course in Spanish and was then given a year off for a
special program at the brothers’ international motherhouse in
Lembecq, Belgium. He joined his confrères in Morelia, Mexico,
on December 28, 1907, a few weeks before the beginning of the
new school year in January 1908. He was assigned to teach the
oldest students and was obviously successful: he was appointed
subdirector of the community and school in January 1909 and
director in January 1910. He recognized opportunities to expand
the school and quickly introduced a business education
program, then agricultural courses, and finally a college
preparatory program. He also sent some of his students to the
seminary and some to the novitiate. Though the Mexican
revolution had started in December 1910, it reached Morelia
only in July 1914, when the rebels captured the city, pillaged it,
and plotted the murder of the bishop. On August 16, 1914, Br.
Alton received the order to get the brothers out of Mexico by
boat via Vera Cruz and immediately sent 12 of them. He stayed
with three others for a week hoping to keep their furniture from
2
destruction. The eve of their departure, disguised as laborers, he
learned of the plot against the bishop and persuaded him to flee
too. The visitor of the District of Cuba gave them all a hearty
welcome, but told Br. Nicéas-Bertin, visitor of the District of
Mexico, that he could find work for only 52 of the 175 French
brothers then
in Mexico. The visitors of the districts in the United States
agreed to take 65. The remainder chose to return to France and
serve in the military during the Great War of 1914-1918 or to
teach as lay people in the schools while living incognito as
brothers. Br. Alton chose the United States and was sent to
Pocantico Hills, New York, in September 1914 and then to
Maryland, briefly
to Ammendale and in November to Eddington, where he
supervised students and taught several classes as he began to
learn English. By 1916 the brothers’ superior general, Imier de
Jésus, saw the possibility of reopening the schools in Mexico
and in preparation decided to regroup the French brothers in
New Mexico. He sent Br. Alton to Santa Fe in July 1916 to help
Br. Nicéas Bertin, the visitor, with the take-over of the three
schools in New Mexico from the District of St. Louis. Alton
scouted the Southwest and Louisiana for places where the
brothers might open schools. He found two in Louisiana and in
1918 negotiated the contracts for schools in Covington and New
Iberia. He was a member of the first community at St. Paul’s
College (high school) in Covington. He was sent back to
Mexico in 1919 to be the founding director of a new school in
M exico City, Colegio de San Juan Bautista de la Salle, which
he opened in January 1920. There he had the pleasure of
helping his former students, the first Mexican brothers, begin
their teaching ministry. In two years he had the school on a
firm footing and was called back to New Mexico, to the then
one-year-old District of New Orleans-Santa Fe, to be director
of La Salle Institute in Las Vegas, 1922-1925. He was recalled
to France in 1925 and spent the rest of his active life as the
director of large boarding schools.
2005: Brother Bartholomew Edwin
(Richard Arnandez) died in Lafayette, Louisiana, at the
age of 93 after a lengthy illness. He was born in New Iberia,
Louisiana, on January 14, 1912,
and was among the brothers’
students when they opened the
parochial school, St. Peter’s
College (high school), in that city
in 1918. He entered the junior
novitiate at De La Salle in
Lafayette in 1925 and received the
brother’s garb in the novitiate
there on December 24, 1927. After
two and a half years of studies in
the scholasticate at Sacred Heart
Training College in Las Vegas,
New Mexico, he was assigned to
teach there until 1932, when he
was sent to Cathedral High School in El Paso, Texas.
Encouraged by the superiors, he entered a competition in 1933
for a scholarship offered by the French government and won.
He earned a degree in the classical languages at the Catholic
University of Lille in France and taught at the French brothers’
boarding school in Passy-Froyennes. He was sent to teach in the
junior novitiate in Lafayette, 1937-1938, St. Paul’s College
(high school) in Covington, Louisiana, 1938-1939, Cathedral
High School in Lafayette, 1939-1941, the scholasticate in Las
Vegas again, 1941-1942, and Landry Memorial High School
Lake Charles, Louisiana, 1942-1944. He spent the next 22 years
in administrative and special service positions: community
director and principal at Landry Memorial, 1944-1947, special
studies at the brothers’ international motherhouse in Rome,
1947-1948, director of the junior novitiate in Lafayette, 19481949, the first American-born visitor of the New Orleans-Santa
Fe District, 1949-1955, and secretary general of the order in
Rome, 1955-1966. He returned to the district in 1966 to teach
at De La Salle High School in New Orleans, Louisiana, but was
called back to Rome to help conduct the brothers’ international
chapter in 1967. He taught at Cathedral-Carmel High School in
Lafayette, 1968-1969, was called back to Rome again for
special projects in the motherhouse, 1969-1972, and then taught
at Cathedral-Carmel again, 1972-1976. He then spent a year at
De La Salle in Lafayette, taught at St. Cecilia parochial school
in Broussard, Louisiana, near Lafayette, 1977-1978, spent four
more years at De La Salle, and taught his final year at
Cathedral-Carmel, 1982-1983. He spent the rest of his life at De
La Salle, most of them as a professional translator of the
languages he had mastered: Latin, Greek, English, French,
Spanish, and Italian. He gained a wide reputation in Louisiana
as a translator and was frequently called on by church officials
and scholars. He made new translations of most of St. John
Baptist de La Salle’s writings. Perhaps his crowning
achievement was his translation of Canon Jean-Baptiste Blain’s
1733 massive three-volume Life of St. John Baptist de La Salle.
Brother Antel Arsène "Arsenius" (Aloys Josef Macher) writes
in his memoirs that Br. Edwin's "studies, travels, and contacts
with many people in this country and in Europe gave him keen
insights into the making of the man and of the religious. His
experience as a teacher and as a director came in good stead in
dealing with school men and educators. He insisted on high
intellectual standards, serious training of teachers and religious,
and the Christian education of the students. As he made his first
visits to the communities, he was well impressed by the charity
and affection with which he was received and the good spirit
that reigned."
2010: Mr. Eugene Bennett, Jr., AFSC, died
in Covington, Louisiana, at age 71, six weeks after heart
surgery. He had spent 48 years as a teacher, coach, and
administrator at St. Paul’s High School in Covington. He was
born in New Orleans, Louisiana, an only child, and received his
education at St. Matthias parochial school, De La Salle High
School, and Tulane University. He spent several years in the
United States Army. He was survived by his wife of 46 years,
the former Gay Glaudi, and their two children. His exemplary
life and his embodiment of the Lasallian vision in his teaching
led the brothers to grant him letters of affiliation in 1987. His
success as a coach of the school’s basketball, baseball, and golf
teams was recognized by his induction into the St. Paul’s High
3
School athletic hall of fame in 2004 and the naming of the
gymnasium the “Gene Bennett sports complex” in 2006.
Brother Raymund Bulliard, his principal at St. Paul’s for many
years, said of him: “He was a loving husband, father and
grandfather, a consummate educator, a quintessential
gentleman, a treasured mentor, a valued friend, and a coach’s
coach who consistently acquitted himself in an exemplary
fashion by touching the hearts of those entrusted to his care.”
5. None
6. 1954: Brother Nivard Joseph (Joseph Liotier),
assistant to the superior general, died in the brothers’ retirement
home in Athis-Mons in the department of Seine et Oise, France,
at the age of 76. He was born on August 20, 1877, in the
mountain village of Montvert in
the French department of Haut
Velay, the first of four children on
the small family farm and grew up
helping with the work in the fields.
Though the brothers had no school
there or nearby, over a dozen boys
from the village became Christian
Brothers. They received their
primary education in a local
school conducted by a diocesan
order of religious sisters called
Ladies of Christian Instruction. He
had his formation and first years of
teaching before the antireligious laws of 1901 and later, but
when the laws gradually reached all parts of France, he was
among the brothers who chose to teach in the schools as lay
people while living as brothers. After some 15 years of
teaching, at the age of 35 he was appointed subdirector of the
novitiate in Bettange, Luxemburg, and a year later first director
of the international motherhouse in Lembecq, Belgium. At the
brothers’ international chapter in Lembecq in 1928 he was
elected assistant to the superior general, in charge of over 1,000
brothers in districts in Europe, Mexico, and Central America.
Composed largely of French brothers, the New Orleans-Santa
Fe District remained under his charge until the end of his
second 10-year term in 1946. He visited the district twice and
gave it his full support, including substantial donations.
1981: Brother Anselme-Eloi (Jean-Marius
Salaville) died at De La Salle in
Lafayette, Louisiana, at the age of
87. He was born on February 13,
1894, to a family of poor farmers
in the isolated village of Servières
in the department of La Lozère,
France. The larger Salaville family
was very religious: two priests,
three Christian Brothers, and four
sisters in various religious orders.
In 1906 at the age of 12 JeanMarius entered the junior novitiate
in Lembecq, Belgium, with nearly 100 boys from many parts of
France and some from Spain. In July 1908 he was one of a
dozen sent to be the first boys in the new junior novitiate at
Premia del Mar on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. A
highlight of the trip was a stop to visit his family in Servières
for two days. He and his classmates were inspired and indelibly
impressed by one of their teachers: St. Miguel Febres Cordero,
whom they considered brilliant, an excellent teacher, and above
all, a saint. In September 1909 he was among some 30 boys
traveling across France by train to Bettange, in Luxemburg. A
highlight of the trip was a stop in Paris and a tour of the city.
They entered the novitiate in Bettange on October 2 and began
their year-long novitiate program with the robing ceremony on
the 31st. Jean Marius received the name Br. Anselme-Eloi. On
November 2, 1910, his group went back to Lembecq for a twoyear teacher-preparation program. They made their first vows
there on August 15, 1912, and received their assignments from
Br. Allais-Charles. Br. Anselme, then 18 years old, was in the
small group assigned to Mexico and was sent to Mixcoac. He
was the youngest brother and taught the lowest grade. His notes
written many years later describe two very happy years in
community and in school. After almost two years to the day, the
175 brothers in Mexico were ordered by the superiors in
Belgium to leave Mexico as soon as possible to escape the
threat of death from the Mexican revolutionaries. After a few
days in Cuba he learned that the superiors had sent another
cable ordering all French brothers subject to military draft who
had escaped from Mexico to go to the United States as soon as
possible. In two weeks Brother Anselm was in a group of ten or
twelve on board the White Fleet ship La Parismina bound for
New Orleans. There he learned that the vicar general of the
Archdiocese of New Orleans had at the request of the superiors
made reservations for seven of them, including Br. Anselm, to
travel by train to Oakland, California. He and three other young
brothers were assigned to St. Vincent’s Orphanage in Marin
County, under the guidance of the director of the San Francisco
District’s scholasticate. Br. Anselm began as a supervisor and
taught a class occasionally until he knew English well enough
to teach full-time. He later described these years as difficult but
satisfying and filled with interesting experiences. He struck up
friendships with the American brothers and with the school
chaplain, all of whom introduced him to the natural beauties of
California. In 1918 he was called to be on the founding faculty
of St. Peter’s College (high school) in New Iberia, Louisiana,
and then taught at St. Michael’s College (high school) in Santa
Fe, New M exico, 1920-1925. He later wrote with pride about
the championships his baseball and basketball teams won in
these two schools. While in New Iberia, he received the
bachelor’s degree from Manhattan College in New York after
many correspondence courses and extension courses taught by
Br. Basile de Jésus (Jean Fosses), who had received an
honorary doctorate while teaching in New York and had been
appointed an instructor by Manhattan College. In Santa Fe, Br.
Anselm made his final profession of vows at the age of 27 and
took summer courses with several other young brothers at the
University of Albuquerque. In 1925 he was sent to Franklin,
Louisiana, to be on the founding faculty of Hanson Memorial
4
High School. After two years, which he later described as very
happy, interesting, and successful in both school and
community, he was appointed the founding director of Landry
Memorial High School in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in 1927. He
later wrote that he was faced with problems he had not expected
but eventually got the school off to a good start and made it so
successful that during his third year he received authorization
to take out a loan to put up a second building. His successor had
to complete this project because in 1930 Br. Anselm was
chosen to attend a year of special studies, called “second
novitiate,” at the brothers’ international motherhouse in
Lembecq, Belgium. This was a homecoming for him because he
had spent four years there as a junior novice and a scholastic
before leaving for Mexico 18 years earlier. On the way to
Lembecq he had ample time to enjoy visits with his family and
relatives in and around Paris. In his notes he gives lengthy
descriptions of his happiness with the “second novitiate”
program. He also records a very unpleasant event that followed
it. Before returning to the United States, he obtained permission
to pay a last visit to his home town, Servières. He was shocked
when two soldiers arrested him as soon as he set foot in the
village and put him in jail. The charge: he was on the list of
men who had failed to report for military service in 1914. He
was allowed to make a single phone call, which he made to the
“secretary general” in Paris. When he was brought to a military
court in the city of Mende the next morning, he was expecting
the worst, but the judge dismissed the charges and ordered him
to be released. Brother Anselm wrote in his notes that he never
found out how or why this happened. He got back to Louisiana
at the end of August 1931 in time to report for a new
assignment: director of Hanson Memorial High School, where
he had taught two years. However, two months later, in
October, he was ordered back to his former position in Lake
Charles, where his successor had found the job intolerable and
begged to be relieved. Brother Anselm soon got things in order
and during the next six years built up an enviable reputation for
the school. In 1937 he was sent to New Iberia as director of St.
Peter’s College (high school), where people remembered him
as a founding teacher in 1918. His service there was cut short
in 1939, when he was appointed the district’s vocation director.
After two successful three-year terms, he was sent to
Monterrey, Mexico, as subdirector of the newly established
Instituto Regiomontano. A year later he was ordered back to
Franklin, where he completed two successful three-year terms
as director. Then 58 years old, he felt the desire to go back to
his native land, especially since the French districts were in
desperate need of brothers. He asked to be transferred to the
District of Paris, which assigned him to operate its bookstore,
LIGEL, in the city of Lyon, not far from his home town.
Twelve years later, in 1964, at the age of 70, he requested his
transfer back to the New Orleans-Santa Fe District, where he
was assigned to Catholic High School, the successor of St.
Peter’s College, in New Iberia. He served as supervisor of the
elementary school classes 13 years, until 1977, when his failing
health forced his retirement to De La Salle in Lafayette.
7. None
8. 1886: Brother Jasper Cyril (John H. McHugh)
died in Memphis, Tennessee, three weeks short of age 18. He
was born on June 28, 1868, in Mankato, Minnesota, and entered
the novitiate in Carondelet, M issouri, in 1882. His short
teaching career took him to Saint Vincent's School in St. Louis,
Missouri, in 1882, Saint Mary's Academy in New Orleans,
Louisiana, 1883-1885, and to Christian Brothers College in
Memphis, where he became sick and died.
1891: Brother Anthimus Gregory (James
M. Phelan) died at age 26 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was
born in Preston, England, in 1865 and migrated with his
parents to the United States. At age 18 he entered the novitiate
in New York in 1884 and received the brother’s robe there. He
was assigned to Manhattan College in New York in 1885 and
to Christian Brothers Academy in Albany, New York, in 1889.
There he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was sent to St.
Michael’s College (high school) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in
January 1891 in hopes of a cure, but to no avail. He was buried
in Rosario Cemetery in Santa Fe.
1942: Brother Adalbert-Charles (Charles
Victor Ména) died of atherosclerosis in Avignon, France, at
the age of 58. He was born on November 14, 1883, in
Gondrexange, Lorraine, then a part of Germany. He entered the
junior novitiate in Buzenval near Paris on April 13, 1898, and
received the brother’s garb in the novitiate in Paris on October
22, 1899. After a year in the St. Joseph scholasticate in Paris he
obtained the elementary teaching license in 1901 and was sent
to the brothers’ school in Vaujours until 1903 and then to St.
Nicolas school in Paris. When this school was closed in 1907
by the anti-religious laws of 1901 and later, he took an intensive
course in Spanish in Clermont-Ferrand that fall and arrived in
Puebla, Mexico, in November 1908. He taught in the brothers’
free school there one year. In December 1909 he was sent to
Morelia, where he taught until he was forced to flee the country
in August 1914 during the Carranza revolution. He was among
some 65 of the 175 French brothers in Mexico who accepted the
offer to go to the United States and was assigned to the District
of Baltimore, Maryland. He was sent to St. Michael’s College
(high school) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1916, as business
manager. Towards the end of 1919 he was sent back to Mexico
City to be a founder of Colegio San Juan Bautista de la Salle,
which opened there in January 1920. Suffering from severe
health problems at the age of 50, he asked to be sent back to
France in 1935 and spent the rest of his life there.
9. 2003: Mr. Sidney Ory, AFSC,
died in Lafayette,
Louisiana. He was affiliated for his generous work for the
brothers in Lafayette and other schools in the Bayou Teche
area of Southwestern Louisiana.
10. None
11. 1913: Brother Hilary Martyr (Timothy Foley)
died at age 65 in Utica, New York. He was born on April 10,
1848, in Coolcullen, Kilkenny, Ireland, and entered the
novitiate at age 25 in Carondelet, Missouri, on September 5,
5
1873. He received the brother’s robe there on November 1,
1873, and was assigned to teach younger children at St. Bridget
School in Chicago, Illinois, in August, 1874. He had many short
assignments in the Midwest until 1892, the first nine as a
teacher and most after that as a supervisor or provider of nonteaching support services. One of the few exceptions was that
of teacher at St. Joseph’s Commercial Academy in New
Orleans, Louisiana, 1886-1887. He moved to the New York
District in 1892 and had non-teaching assignments in several
schools until his death.
1939: Brother Landrick Joseph (John
Collins) died at age 81 in Glencoe, Missouri, of cerebral
palsy. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on June l6,
1858. His father died just before the siege of New Orleans
during the War between the States, and in 1868 his mother
enrolled him at age ten in St. Joseph's Academy to be taught by
the brothers. He was inspired by them and after three years
asked his mother to allow him to enter the novitiate in
Carondelet, Missouri. He received the brother’s garb there in
October, 1871, at age 13. The last of his many assignments in
the Midwest was to St. Patrick’s High School in Chicago,
Illinois, in 1910. There, according to the Midwest District’s
death notice, he "daily taught catechism in the classroom; after
class hours he prepared little Italian children in the slum
districts of Chicago for their First Holy Communion; and
weekly he conducted religious classes for hardened criminals in
the Illinois State Penitentiary in Joliet, Illinois."
12. None
13. 1951: Brother Adelbert-Marie (Sylvain Duret)
died at De La Salle in Lafayette, Louisiana, in 1951 at the age
of 62. He was born in Paris, France, on October 6, 1888, to a
devout Catholic family, which sent him to the Christian
Brothers’ school on rue de Grenelle. His mother died when he
was ten. At the age of twelve he entered the brothers’ junior
novitiate at their motherhouse on rue Oudinot in Paris on April
18, 1901. Approximately a year
later his father died. Then the
anti-religious laws passed in 1904
forced the superiors to move their
entire establishment on rue
Oudinot out of the country in July
1905. Sylvain, then 16, was in the
group that moved to Lembecq,
Belgium. Shortly after the move,
the superiors moved the junior
n o vitiate an d n o vitiate to
Bettange, in Luxemburg. There,
on October 28, some three weeks
after he turned 17, he received the
brother’s robe and the name Adelbert-Marie to begin the yearlong novitiate program. When it was finished in October 1907,
his group was sent back to Lembecq for some 15 months in the
scholasticate, where they studied Spanish. In January 1908,
when he was still 18, he was sent to join the French brothers
from the districts of Paris, Le Puy, and Nantes, who had just
founded the District of Mexico. He was assigned to the
community in Puebla to get acclimatized, learn the local
customs, and improve his Spanish. In April he was given his
first teaching assignment in Zacatecas, where he taught the
lower and intermediate grades until 1912, when he was sent to
Querétaro to teach in the upper classes at Liceo Católico.
Suddenly in August 1914 the revolution reached the city, and
Br. Adelbert was in a group of brothers that reached New York
in October after several weeks in Cuba. Just 26 years old, he
plunged into the study of English and soon knew it well enough
to teach in the junior novitiate at Pocantico Hills, New York,
until 1915. He was then assigned to La Salle on Second Street
in New York City, where he taught French, Spanish, and
mathematics with great success, and also enjoyed exploring the
big city. In July 1917 he made his profession of final vows after
the district retreat in Pocantico Hills. He later spoke often about
his stay in New York. In 1918 he was called to be a founding
member and subdirector of the community that took over St.
Paul’s College (high school) in Covington, Louisiana. Two
years later he was sent to teach the senior class at Cathedral
High School in Lafayette, Louisiana, which he did until 1925.
He made such an impression on his students that several classes
invited him to the celebration of their 25th anniversary of
graduation. Though successful in teaching, he found community
life difficult due to his impulsiveness and sensitivity. He
requested a year off to take the special program at the brothers’
international motherhouse in Lembecq, Belgium. However, his
intensity led to severe mental stress and he had to leave after
several months. He regained his calm and his strength during
several months of rest in the community of brothers at the large
boarding school in Passy-Froyennes. Back home in his district
in 1926, he was appointed director of his former community, St.
Paul’s in Covington, but both he and the community soon
realized that he did not have the characteristics of a leader.
After three difficult years, he asked to be relieved and was sent
to the scholasticate at Sacred Heart Training College in Las
Vegas, New Mexico, as professor and subdirector. At home in
his element, he was a great success. Two years later, in 1931, he
was appointed subdirector in charge of academics at St.
Michael’s College (high school) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and
again performed successfully. Once again, in 1934, he was
appointed director and principal, this time of Kirwin High
School in Galveston, Texas. Conditions there suited his
temperament better, and he completed two three-year terms
successfully. Then in 1940 he was appointed to lead a school
where he had made such a good impression as a teacher:
Cathedral High School in Lafayette. Unfortunately, conditions
were different, and he found it difficult to cope. Besides, his
diabetes made him irritable and difficult to approach. He
insisted on a change of assignment after his three-year term and
was sent to Instituto Regiomontano in Monterrey, Mexico,
where he taught two years. He was then sent back to Covington
as subdirector but asked for a change after two years. His visit
to family and friends in France in the summer of 1947 gave him
great joy and revitalized him. He was chosen to be a founding
faculty member of St. Michael’s College in Santa Fe when it
6
opened as a four-year college in September. Back in his
element, he spent two and a half successful and happy years as
a college professor, earning the praise of his students and the
gratitude of the administrators. However, his physical
disabilities were increasing: a liver disease weakened him
considerably and he asked to be relieved of his position. He was
sent to De La Salle in Lafayette in February 1950 as subdirector
of the novitiate. After a few weeks of rest his strength returned,
but three months later he began getting weak again and finally
died on June 13, 1951. He was so well known in Lafayette that
the bishop insisted on presiding at the funeral Mass in the
Cathedral, and it was nearly filled to capacity. Many brothers of
the district remember him for his broad interests, his voracious
reading, and the interesting and brilliant conferences he gave at
retreats.
1850, at age 25 and received the brother’s garb there on
December 17, 1850, among the first to enter after the brothers
arrived there in 1849. In October 1852 he was assigned to the
Community of New Orleans, Louisiana, where he taught at St.
Patrick’s parish free school for boys and then at St. Mary’s
Academy. His health began to fail and in January 1860, in
hopes that a better climate would improve his health, he was
sent to Christian Brothers Academy, opened in 1859 in St.
Augustine, Florida. His health got worse, and he died 18
months later.
1975: Mr. Robert Carson, BFSC, died in El
Paso, Texas. As the coach of various athletic teams at
Cathedral High School in that city during many years of
extreme poverty, he brought success and prominence to the
school. In recognition the brothers awarded him letters of
affiliation on February 14, 1957.
14-15. None
1999: Brother Abel Francis (Ernest V.
Beck) died in New Orleans, Louisiana, at the age of 88 after
16. 2009: Brother Cyril Marcus (Richard Segura)
died at the age of 91 in a nursing home in Lafayette, Louisiana,
after an extended illness. He was
born in Segura, Louisiana, on
November 15, 1917, and entered
the junior novitiate at De La Salle
in Lafayette in 1930. He began the
year-long novitiate there on
August 14, 1933, with the
reception of the brother’s garb. He
studied in the scholasticate at
Sacred Heart Training College in
Las Vegas, New Mexico, 19341936, and was immediately
assigned to teach there and in the
junior novitiate on the same
campus. He spent 1941-1942 teaching, successively, at Mullen
Home for Boys in Fort Logan, Colorado, and St. Michael’s
College (high school) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 1943 he was
sent back to the scholasticate as a professor, in 1945 back to
Mullen in Fort Logan for one year, then back to the
scholasticate. In 1947 he was on the founding faculty of the
new four-year program at St. Michael’s College (later renamed
College of Santa Fe) in Santa Fe. He remained there the rest of
his active life, except for a sabbatical for study in 1968 and a
year at Archbishop Rummel High School in Metairie,
Louisiana, in 1973. He is remembered as a quiet, unassuming
man, an accomplished organist, a learned professor, and an
outstanding teacher. He lived in retirement in the brothers’
community on the college campus, but his medical needs
required his transfer to the retirement community at De La Salle
in Lafayette in 2007.
17. 1861: Brother Lewis of Gonzaga (Michael
Farrell) died in St. Augustine, Florida, at age 36 after several
years of poor health. He was born on December 17, 1825, in
Longford, Ireland, and migrated with his family to St. Louis,
Missouri. He entered the novitiate in St. Louis on October 8,
a long illness. He was born on March 31, 1916, in Denver,
Colorado, and graduated from the Jesuits’ Regis High School
in that city. He entered the
novitiate at De La Salle in
Lafayette, Louisiana, in May,
1933, and began the year-long
novitiate program there with the
reception of the religious garb
and the name Brother Abel
Francis on Aug. 14, 1933. He
took courses in the scholasticate
at Sacred Heart Training College
in Las Vegas, New Mexico, from
1934 to 1937 and then was sent to
teach at Landry Memorial High
S c h o o l i n L ake C h arl e s ,
Louisiana, 1937-1940, and in the
junior novitiate at De La Salle in Lafayette, 1940-1944. He was
director there, 1944-1946, was given the next year off for
special studies in the brothers’ international motherhouse in
Rome, and went back to his position in the junior novitiate for
one year. He was vocation director in the southern part of the
district, 1948-1952. He served the rest of his life as a school or
district administrator: first, principal/director of St. Michael’s
High School in Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1952-1955, of De La
Salle High School in New Orleans, Louisiana, 1955-1961, and
of St. Paul’s High School in Covington, Louisiana, 1961-1968.
He was appointed auxiliary visitor of the district in 1968 and
visitor in 1969. Brother Antel Arsène "Arsenius" (Aloys Josef
Macher) wrote in his memoirs after Br. Francis was nominated
visitor by the brothers at the district chapter in June 1969: "His
achievements in the past, his successes as director in different
schools, his love of order, cleanliness and beauty, his directness
in his presentations and remarks pleased the brothers, for they
know what he expected from them. This assured that the
brothers would give him their confidence and cooperation."
During the first of his two three-year terms Francis moved the
provincial’s office from De La Salle in Lafayette to a residence
7
on Arnoult Street in Metairie, Louisiana, near Archbishop
Rummel High School. He was appointed the district’s finance
director in 1975 and the order’s international finance director in
1976, with residence at the motherhouse in Rome. Illness forced
him to resign this position and to return to the provincial’s
residence in Metairie in December 1976. Upon his recovery, he
was appointed auxiliary visitor and finance director, with a
change of residence to the community at Rummel High School
in 1978. He retired in 1990 and was moved to the De La Salle
retirement community in Lafayette in 1993. He was sent to a
nursing home in New Orleans in 1995 and stayed there until his
death. He donated his body to a medical school for research. A
memorial Mass for him was celebrated at Our Lady of the Holy
Rosary church in New Orleans. He was fondly remembered by
the brothers of the district for his optimism, his joviality in
community, his concern for their needs, his continuous search
for new ideas, his financial expertise, and his construction
projects in the schools where he was principal.
18. None
New Mexico, in September 1916 to be in the first community
of brothers from the District of Mexico who took over the three
schools in New Mexico that belonged to the District of St.
Louis. A year later he was assigned to Las Vegas, New Mexico,
to teach at La Salle Institute until it was closed in 1926. He
taught one year in the junior novitiate at Sacred Heart Training
College in Las Vegas and was sent to De La Salle in Lafayette
in 1927. He taught at Hanson Memorial High School in
Franklin, Louisiana, 1928-1933, and at St. Peter’s College (high
school) in New Iberia, Louisiana, 1933-1939. He spent the next
13 years, 1939-1952, in the community at De La Salle in
Lafayette maintaining and improving the property, especially
the grounds. He was sent back to teach in Franklin one year and
then to work on the district’s ranch Bernalillo, New Mexico. He
spent the last 26 years of his life at De La Salle in Lafayette.
The boys he taught in Las Vegas kept fond memories of him for
many years. He was especially remembered by the brothers for
his decades of work at De La Salle in Lafayette, where his vast
gardens and orchards supplied fresh vegetables and fruits for
the entire personnel.
19. 1897: Brother Azarie (Alexandre Vignon) died
20. None
in Martinez, California, at the age of 70. He was born on June
15, 1828, in Valognes, France, and was a successful
horticulturist when he entered the novitiate in Caen, France, in
1856 at the age of 28. In 1864 Brother Facile, then assistant to
the superior general for the districts in North America, called on
Br. Azarie to use his horticultural skills for the brothers’
institutions in the United States. Br. Azarie spent three years in
New York, five at Pass Christian College in Mississippi, 18671872, and 22 at the New York District’s novitiate. His doctors
suggested a change of climate in 1894, and he was sent to
Martinez, California, where he worked until his death.
According to some reports from the brother visitors, he was in
Pass Christian for his health from 1879 to 1881 with Brother
John the Baptist, who was there caring for the college property
until it was sold.
21. 1911: Brother Antonian Patrick (John
Keough) died of a kidney ailment at age 68 in Glencoe,
(Jean
Missouri. He was born on October 27, 1842, in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. He served in the Union Army during the War
between the States and on September 6, 1868, at age 26, he
"traded in his soldier's uniform for the habit of the Christian
Brothers" when he entered the novitiate in Carondelet,
Missouri. He received the robe on October 31. He taught in
several schools in the Midwest until 1882, when he was
appointed a bookkeeper and kept at it 20 years. In 1896 he
experienced health problems and was sent to the milder climate
at La Salle Institute in Las Vegas, New Mexico, as community
subdirector. Somewhat rested a year later, he returned to St.
Joseph, Missouri, and was named subdirector of the junior
novitiate in Glencoe in 1909.
called Benito and Benedict, died at De La
Salle in Lafayette, Louisiana, at the age of 90. He was born in
the French village of Livriac in the department of Haute-Loire
on January 13, 1892. He entered the novitiate at Bettange,
Luxemburg, and began the year-long program with the
reception of the religious garb and the name Br. Benoît-Marie
on March 21, 1908. He had 20 months of teacher training in the
scholasticate, 1909-1910, and was then sent to M exico with a
group of young brothers who arrived there in January 1911. He
taught the school year 1912 in the Liceo Católico in Zacatecas
and was transferred to Colegio del Sagrado Corazón in Torreón
in 1913. His stay there was cut short in August 1914 by the
Carranza revolution, and the whole community of brothers
made their way to Cuba. He was in the small group that was
sent by boat to New Orleans in October 1914 and then by train
to Oakland, California. He was assigned to the District of San
Francisco scholasticate to learn English and in April 1915 to St.
Vincent Orphanage in Marin County. He was sent to Santa Fe,
died of cancer in Lafayette, Louisiana, at age 22. He was
adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Herbert J.
Roth in New Orleans, Louisiana, on
December 23, 1937. He entered the
junior novitiate at De La Salle in
Lafayette in September 1954 and
began the novitiate there with the
reception of the brother’s garb and
the name Br. Kevin Miles on
Septem b e r 7, 1957. Sickness
interrupted his novitiate for months.
When Dr. James Nix, AFSC, finally
gave the diagnosis of terminal cancer
with only months to live, Br. Kevin expressed his desire to die
as a Christian Brother. He was allowed to complete the
remaining months of his novitiate and to take vows on October
8, 1959. He remained in the infirmary at De La Salle in
1982:
Duplain), also
Brother
Benoît-Marie
1960: Brother Kevin Miles (Keith Roth)
8
Lafayette until his death.
2001: Brother Adrian Abel (Robert S.
Roy) died in Covington, Louisiana, at age 81. He was born in
New Orleans, Louisiana, on May 13, 1920, entered the junior
novitiate at De La Salle in Lafayette, Louisiana, in 1934, and
began the year-long novitiate there on August 14, 1938. He
studied in the scholasticate at Sacred Heart Training College in
Las Vegas, New Mexico, 1939-1942, and then received the first
of three assignments to St. Paul’s College (high school) in
Covington, Louisiana, the first two as a teacher, 1942-1949 and
1958-1966, and the third in retirement, 1993-2001. In between,
he taught at St. Nicholas School in Bernalillo, New Mexico,
1949-1950, Cathedral High School in El Paso, Texas, 19501953, Cathedral High School in Lafayette, 1953-1954, St.
Peter’s College (high school) and Catholic High School in New
Iberia, Louisiana, 1954-1956. In 1966 he was sent to
Archbishop Rummel High School in Metairie, Louisiana, where
he served 27 years as a teacher and bookkeeper.
22. 1981: Amy (Mrs. George) Voorhies
died in
Lafayette, Louisiana. She and her husband were benefactors of
the brothers in Lafayette for many years. When he died in1964
he left them valuable real estate, and she continued her
donations. She was affiliated in 1972.
1998: Brother Alphonsus Benedict (José
María Abeyta) died at age 90 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, of
injuries sustained in a fall. He was born in Parkview, New
Mexico, on April 24, 1908, one of eight children in a devout
Catholic family. He heard about the brothers of St. Michael’s
College (high school) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from his
father, Enrique A. Abeyta, a state senator, who had been
educated there during the 35-year presidency of the well-known
Brother Botulph (Joseph Schneider). The first brother that José
María saw was Brother Abadir Joseph (Pierre-François
Durand), the well known and successful vocation director of the
New Orleans-Santa Fe District, who was in Parkview in
September 1920 looking for boys to take to the recently opened
junior novitiate at Sacred Heart Training College in Las Vegas,
New Mexico. Brother Joseph attended Mass in the local St.
Joseph’s Church at which José was an altar server. After Mass
he introduced himself to the two altar boys and was pleased to
learn that both had heard good things about the brothers.
Eventually he asked them if they were interested in becoming
brothers. Both said yes! Both families told Brother Joseph they
would be pleased to see their sons become brothers. A day or
two later he found a third interested boy whose parents were
similarly disposed. Two months later Brother Joseph returned
to take them by train to Las Vegas, which they reached on
November 10 at 1:30 a.m. in a blinding snowstorm. He entered
the novitiate on the same campus in June 1924 with three
companions, and began the year-long program with the
reception of the brother’s robe and the name Brother Alphonsus
Benedict on August 14, 1924. He then had two years of teacher
training in the scholasticate on the same campus and was
assigned to teach at St. Peter’s College (high school) in New
Iberia, Louisiana, 1927-1931, and St. Paul’s College (high
school) in Covington, Louisiana, 1931-1938. He was sent to
Rome in 1938 for a year of special studies at the brothers’
international motherhouse, which he described as “a year of
asceticism,” and was assigned to teach in the junior novitiate in
Las Vegas in 1939. He was sent to Mullen Home for Boys in
Fort Logan, Colorado, 1940-1943, as a teacher, to St. Michael’s
College (high school) in Santa Fe, 1943-1945, as a dormitory
supervisor, and back to St. Paul’s in Covington as business
manager, 1945-1950. He spent the rest of his life in the West:
St. Michael’s in Santa Fe, 1950-1951, as a teacher; Cathedral
High School in El Paso, Texas, in 1951 as a teacher and 19541957 as principal; Santa Fe, again as a teacher at St. Michael’s,
1957-1967; Mullen in Denver (to which Fort Logan had been
annexed), as a teacher, 1967-1974. He then had a year’s
sabbatical and was back in El Paso as a teacher, 1975-1978, and
in Santa Fe as director of the brothers’ community at St.
Michael’s, 1978-1981. He then retired from school work but
rendered many services to the brothers’ community and to the
school’s alumni association. The brothers remember him for his
sense of humor, his wild stories, his willingness to render any
service at any time, his love of nature and beautiful things, and
his dedication to his vocation.
23. 1931: Brother Luke Maximus (David Kirby)
died at age 57 in St. Louis, Missouri. He was born on March 3,
1877, in Kerry Read, County Kerry, Ireland. He entered the
novitiate in Castletown, Ireland, at age 21 in 1897 and
transferred to the one in Glencoe, Missouri, to finish it. After
two short assignments in the St. Louis area, he was sent to New
Mexico in August 1900 and taught there 13 years, first at St.
Nicholas School in Bernalillo and then at St. Michael’s College
(high school) in Santa Fe until 1913. He spent the remaining 18
years of his life in several of the St. Louis District schools in the
Midwest.
1966: Brother Nilammon (Jean-Baptiste
Laurent) died in Le Puy, France, at the age of 92. He was
born in Saugues, France, on February 22, 1874, and attended
the village school, where two of his uncles were among the
dozens of boys whom St. Benilde taught and sent to the
brothers’ novitiate. He completed his studies at the brothers’
boarding school, Notre Dame de France, in Le Puy, and entered
the novitiate in Le Puy at the age of 17 in 1891. He was sent
back to the boarding school in 1893 and taught there until 1902,
except for two years of military service. He was sent to teach in
the brothers’ boarding school in Mende, but his stay was cut
short in 1905 when the school was closed as a result of the antireligious laws of 1904. He took the crash course in Spanish that
the superiors had organized in Clermont-Ferrand and by year’s
end arrived in Puebla, Mexico, in time to be on the founding
faculty of the free school, Colegio San Juan Bautista de La
Salle, in January 1906, one of two schools the brothers opened
there that year. In 1908 he was assigned to Morelia and in 1909,
though listed for Morelia, was sent to the United States to
improve his English, first in the junior novitiate at Glencoe,
Missouri, and then at Christian Brothers College in St. Louis.
He returned to Mexico in 1910 and taught in Monterrey
9
(1910), Saltillo (1911, 1912), briefly at two schools in Mexico
City, and in 1913 back to Puebla, where he had started. After
the French brothers and all foreign religious and priests were
forced out of the country by the Carranza revolution in August
1914 he ended up teaching at La Salle Institute in Las Vegas,
New Mexico, 1916-1918, and was sent to Covington,
Louisiana, in 1918 to be the founding director of the brothers’
community at St. Paul’s College (high school). He was sent to
Mexico City in 1920 as business manager of the newly opened
Colegio de San Bautista de la Salle. In 1924 he appeared
unannounced in Cuba and was assigned to teach English in
several of that district’s schools. In 1933 he went to the
Republic of Santo Domingo as subdirector and business
manager of a newly established community. He returned to
Cuba in 1940 and shortly afterward suffered an inflamation in
both lungs. Treatment with streptomycin cured the lungs but
left him completely deaf. Unable to do any kind of school work,
he made himself helpful in the community as best he could and
then served as archivist at Colegio de la Salle in Havana, 19461956. He was sent to a retirement community in Cuba but was
evacuated to the United States in 1958 with all the brothers of
the District of Cuba when the Castro revolution succeeded. He
was sent back to Le Puy, France, where he remained in the
retirement community until his death.
2008: Brother Benedict Valbert (John
Vincent Turner) died in a nursing home at the age of 86,
in Denver, Colorado, his home town. He was born on February
7, 1922, entered the junior novitiate at Sacred Heart Training
College in Las Vegas, New Mexico, in 1936, and the novitiate
at De La Salle in Lafayette, Louisiana, in 1939. He began the
year-long novitiate program on August 14 with the reception of
the brother’s garb and the name Brother Benedict Valbert. He
spent the 57 years of his active life in physical plant
maintenance: 21 in New Mexico at Sacred Heart in Las Vegas,
1940-1947, the district’s ranch in Bernalillo, 1947-1950 and
1953-1955, St. Michael’s College in Santa Fe, 1950-1953, St.
Michael’s High School in Santa Fe, 1958-1962, and Sangre de
Cristo Center near Santa Fe, 1962-1964. He also served 26
years in Louisiana: De La Salle in Lafayette, 1955-1958 and
1971-1975, and De La Salle High School in New Orleans,
1964-1971 and 1975-1987. He retired to the community at
Mullen High School in Denver in 1987. He was a very quiet
and unassuming person, always smiling, ready to serve in any
emergency at any time and any place. He spent hours playing
a hand harmonica and enjoyed being called upon to entertain
the community and other groups.
24. 1924: Brother Flavian of Jesus (John Baum)
died in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the age of 75. He was born
in Cologne, Germany, on January 24, 1849, and migrated to the
United States. He entered the novitiate in Carondelet, Missouri,
on June 13, 1876, at age 27 and received the brother’s robe
there on August 15. Among his many assignments to the St.
Louis District schools was one to St. Joseph’s Commercial
Academy in New Orleans, Louisiana, 1888-1892.
25. 1953: Brother Agnel Isidore (Isidore Bertuit)
died in the brothers’ international motherhouse in Rome at the
age of 81. He was born in the hamlet of de la Roche in the
French department of La Lozère on August 21, 1871, and
entered the junior novitiate at
Vals on November 1, 1883. He
began the year-long novitiate in
the brothers’ motherhouse in Paris
on September 14, 1887, with the
reception of the brother’s garb
and the name Brother AgnelIsidore. After a year of study in
the St. Joseph scholasticate in
Paris he received the elementary
teaching license in 1889 and was
assigned to teach in the junior
novitiate at Buzenval. He taught
there 11 years and made his final profession of vows. In 1900
he was sent to Paris to teach in St.-Nicolas d’Igny school. In
1906 the anti-religious laws passed in 1904 forced the closure
of the school. He spent the fall of 1906 and most of 1907 in
Clermont-Ferrand learning Spanish and teaching part-time in
the “missionary scholasticate” that the superiors had opened
there. Then 36 years old, he was the “director at sea” in a group
of eight brothers that set sail for Vera Cruz, Mexico, at the end
of November 1907. He was assigned to the community in
Puebla at the beginning of the new school year in January 1908
and was appointed director of the 600-student free school, San
Juan Bautista de la Salle, in that city. He did well in this first
experience as an administrator. In December 1909 Brother
Anthime-Louis, first visitor of the District of Mexico, received
a letter from Brother Allais-Charles, assistant to the superior
general, suggesting that after three years in Mexico it was time
to open a novitiate and recruit Mexican candidates. The visitor
found a large suitable property near Mexico City with various
buildings on it and bought it. He appointed Brother AgnelIsidore director of novices and gave him the challenge of
remodeling and furnishing the buildings and then finding
candidates to occupy them. After months of preparations and
more months of waiting Br. Agnel-Isidore still had no
candidates. He decided to tell the visitor the project was
impossible and should be abandoned. However, when he went
to talk to the visitor, the latter was praying in the chapel more
than an hour, and the conversation did not happen. So he
decided he should join the visitor in prayer and trust in divine
providence. Finally, qualified young men began applying and
Br. Agnel-Isidore took delight in their formation. When the
Carranza revolution forced foreign priests and religious out of
country in August 1914, six novices followed the brothers to
Cuba, and Brother Agnel saw them through to their first vows.
More Mexican candidates entered, and when they finished in
1917, the superiors in Lembecq sent them with their director to
the New York District’s scholasticate in Pocantico Hills. At age
46, he set about learning English and in the spring of 1918 was
sent to St. Michael’s College (high school) in Santa Fe, New
Mexico, to help Brother Nicéas Bertin, visitor of the District of
Mexico. After a few months there he received the shock of his
10
life: appointment as visitor, replacing Brother Nicéas, who was
diagnosed with cancer early in the year and died of it on
September 21 that year. Possessing more than adequate
personal qualities, dedication and experience, he felt
handicapped by his inadequate English and used French and
Spanish whenever he could. During his three-year term he
concluded the negotiations to open the first three schools in
Louisiana, and acquired Sacred Heart Training College in Las
Vegas, New Mexico, where he opened a junior novitiate, a
novitiate, and a scholasticate and set up his office. Mindful of
his experience in Mexico, he appointed Brother Abadir-Joseph
vocation director to fill the houses of formation. He also saw to
the reopening of some of the schools in Mexico. When the
superiors in Lembecq decided in 1921 to separate the schools
in Louisiana and New Mexico from the District of Mexico and
to create the District of New Orleans-Santa Fe, they appointed
Br. Agnel-Isidore visitor of the new district. He negotiated the
purchase of the Magnolia plantation near Lafayette, Louisiana,
named it simply De La Salle, put up a new building, and opened
a junior novitiate in it. After completing this term as visitor in
1924, Br. Agnel Isidore was called to the international
motherhouse in Lembecq, Belgium, by the superior general,
Brother Allais-Charles, for an assignment that lasted 25 years:
visitor-general of the districts in France, Italy, Belgium and
Spain. The work consisted in supervising the development of
programs for the spiritual growth of the boys and young
brothers in the houses of formation and in monitoring their
implementation during annual visits. The job was more than
full-time and physically demanding. It kept him traveling most
of the year. Occasionally, the superior sent him on special visits
to districts in other countries, including one in 1936 to the New
Orleans-Santa Fe District. In 1949, at the age of 78, Br. Agnel
retired and spent the rest of his life in the motherhouse, which
had been moved to Rome in 1934.
1963: Most Rev. Edwin V. Byrne, AFSC,
Archbishop of Santa Fe, New Mexico, died there. A student in
the brothers’ schools in Philadelphia, he was a great help to the
brothers in Santa Fe in 1947 in the establishment of St.
Michael’s College (later renamed College of Santa Fe). He was
affiliated in 1950.
26. 1884: Brother Irlide (Jean P. Cazaneuve),
superior general, died in Paris. He governed the order from
1875-1884 and oversaw the changes taking place in the Deep
South those years.
1935: Brother Jude Michael (Patrick
McNally) died at age 82 in Glencoe, Missouri. He was born
on March 15, 1853, in Dublin, Ireland. His parents died when
he was very young and, still a minor, he migrated to St. Louis,
Missouri. There he attended Christian Brothers College and met
Brother Barbas, whose influence led him to enter the novitiate
in nearby Carondelet in 1876 at age 23. His first assignment
was a 40-year stay in New Mexico, until 1916. M ost of these
years were at St. Michael’s College (high school) in Santa Fe,
except St. Mary’s College (high school) in Mora, 1883-1884,
St. Nicholas School in Bernalillo, 1884-1885 and 1886-1896
and 1900-1904, and La Salle Institute in Las Vegas, 19041913. He was well-liked by the Indians of the pueblos around
Santa Fe for the special programs he created for their boys who
attended St. Michael’s, 1879-1881, under the patronage of
Archbishop J. B. Lamy. When the District of Mexico took over
the schools in New Mexico in 1916, Br. Jude was sent to
Christian Brothers College in St. Joseph, M issouri, one year
and spent the rest of his life in the retirement community in
Glencoe.
1996. Brother August Joseph (José Ramón
Valdez) died in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the age of 89, after
surgery for an abdominal cancer. He was born in Pojoaque,
New Mexico, on December 1, 1906. His hard work as a young
boy on the family farm led to rheumatism and eventually
paralysis. Bathing in the hot sulfurous water of Jémez Springs
cured him. He remained on the farm until he entered the junior
novitiate at Sacred Heart Training College in Las Vegas, New
Mexico, at the age of 13 in 1919. After four years José began
the year-long novitiate program there with the reception of the
brother’s garb and the name Brother August Joseph on March
17, 1923. He made his first vows a year later and took teachertraining courses in the scholasticate on the same campus. He
was assigned to teach at St. Michael’s College (high school) in
Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1925, St. Nicholas School in
Bernalillo, New Mexico, in 1933, and Cathedral High School
in El Paso, Texas, in 1941. In 1942 he was chosen to be on the
first faculty of Instituto Regiomontano in Monterrey, Mexico.
In 1947 he was sent back to Las Vegas, this time as a member
of the first faculty of West Las Vegas High School, located on
the Sacred Heart Training College property. When the brothers
moved the scholasticate to St. Michael’s College in Santa Fe in
1947, the local public school district bought the property and
asked the brothers to staff the new school. Two years later he
was among the priests and religious teaching in public schools
in New Mexico who were forced to leave by a court decision in
the then well-known Dixon lawsuit. Brother Joseph was sent to
teach at Cathedral High School in Lafayette, Louisiana, 19491950, back to St. Michael’s in Santa Fe, 1950-1954, Hanson
Memorial High School in Franklin, Louisiana, 1954-1955. He
then spent 20 years teaching elementary grade classes at
Catholic High School in New Iberia, Louisiana. In 1975, at the
age of 69, he asked for the summer off to travel to the Holy
Land. The rest of his life he talked about how privileged he felt
to visit the places familiar to Jesus and Mary. He was assigned
to the retirement community at De La Salle in Lafayette, but
after two years he succumbed to the lure of teaching. He taught
one year in St. Cecilia parochial school in nearby Broussard,
1977-1978, and two in Christian Brothers Academy in New
Orleans, Louisiana. In 1980 at the age of 74, his energy was
gone and he spent a year in retirement in the community at St.
Michael’s High School in Santa Fe, three in the retirement
community in Lafayette, 1981-1984, then back to Santa Fe, this
time in the community at the College of Santa Fe, 1984-1986,
back to Lafayette, 1986-1991, and— finally! — St. Michael’s
in Santa Fe, where he remained until his death. He is
remembered as a pleasant confrère in community and an
enthusiastic, competent teacher of the young.
11
2006: Brother Claudius George (Juan
Esquibel) died in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at age 94 after a
lengthy illness. He was born in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico,
on May 4, 1912. He entered the junior novitiate at Sacred
Training College in Las Vegas, New Mexico, in 1926, and the
novitiate at De La Salle in Lafayette, Louisiana, where he
received the brother’s garb and the name Brother Claudius
George on July 1, 1929. After two
year s o f stu d ies in th e
scholasticate at Sacred Heart
Training College, 1930-1932, he
taught at St. Nicholas School in
Bernalillo, New Mexico, 19321940, St. Michael’s College (high
school) in Santa Fe, 1940-1946,
Hanson Memorial High School in
Franklin, Louisiana, 1946-1951,
and Mullen Home for Boys in
Fort Logan Colorado, 1951-1959.
He was then sent back to St.
Michael’s in Santa Fe, 19591966, back to Mullen (converted
by then into a high school and annexed by the City of Denver)
for one year, and back to New Mexico, this time as physical
plant director at the Sangre de Cristo center in Chupadero, and
back to Mullen again as a teacher, 1970-1975. He then received
his second assignment to Louisiana, this time at CathedralCarmel High School in Lafayette, 1975-1976, and was finally
sent back to New Mexico for good to teach at St. Michael’s in
Santa Fe until his retirement. His specialty was industrial arts,
mostly woodworking and automotive mechanics. After retiring
from teaching, he spent many years using these skills for the
benefit of the school and the community.
27. None
28. 1899: Brother Colmas Eadbert (Peter J.
Sinnott) died of tuberculosis at age 35 in Amawalk, New
York. He was born on November 29, 1863, in Johnstown,
Ireland. At age ten he migrated to Brooklyn, New York, with
his family. There he attended the brothers’ school and in 1881
at age 18 entered the novitiate in Westchester, New York. After
several assignments in New York, he volunteered for the
missions in India but was sent to Canada instead. After
returning to New York in 1893 he volunteered for a new
community being established in Cuba. When it was closed on
account of the Spanish-American War, he returned to New
York City in 1899 and was appointed director of the community
at St. Joseph's. There he showed signs of tuberculosis and was
sent to recover at St. Nicholas School in Bernalillo, New
Mexico. While there, he taught catechism in the nearby Indian
pueblos. He showed no signs of recovery and was called back
to Amawalk. He died shortly afterwards.
29. 1910: Brother Justinian Gabriel (Gerald
Flemming) died at age 55 in Glencoe, Missouri. He was born
on September 22, 1854, in Kildare, Leinster, Ireland. Though
some records show his birth date as February 19, 1849, all agree
that he entered the novitiate in Carondelet, Missouri, on
September 19, 1874. Some records of his are lost but those
remaining show that he taught in New Orleans, Louisiana, at St.
John the Baptist School, 1878-1881, and St. Joseph’s
Commercial Academy, 1897-1899.
1938: Brother Bruno Patrick (John
O’Connell) died in Galveston, Texas, at the age of 27, after
minor surgery which led to a blood clot. He was born on May
15, 1911, in Waterloo, Iowa. He
met the Christian Brothers when
he attended St. Michael’s College
(high school) in Santa Fe, New
Mexico. He entered the novitiate
at De La Salle in Lafayette,
Louisiana, on May 16, 1927, and
received the brother’s garb and the
name Brother Bruno Patrick on
July 1. After two years of study in
the scholasticate at Sacred Heart
Training College in Las Vegas,
New Mexico, he was assigned to
teach at St. Michael’s. In 1931 he
was sent to Galveston, Texas, to
be in the founding community at
Kirwin High School. He taught there until his death after minor
surgery, at the age of 27. Brother Antel Arsène "Arsenius"
(Aloys Josef Macher) wrote of him in his memoirs: "In spite of
his youth he acquired that ascendance which allowed him to
help the boys in their intellectual as well as their moral
development. . . . He loved singing and on many occasions
entertained the community or the athletic association, of which
he was the moderator. The Lord endowed him with many
talents, and the superiors had great hopes for a fruitful future,
but the Lord wanted him in heaven as an intercessor for future
generations of young brothers. Realizing that God was asking
for a tremendous sacrifice, Patrick begged the Lord to spare
him. 'I want to live, I want to live,' he said several times. But
thanks to his faith and his director Brother Adelbert's
encouragement, his soul was flooded with peace, calm,
resignation. He offered his life for his brothers and his boys."
30. 1993: Brother Bertrand Leo (Robert Kirby)
died of a stroke in Lincroft, New Jersey, at age 77. He was
born in Harlem, New York, on May 1, 1916. His mother
insisted that the family move to the Bronx in 1928 so Robert
could be taught by the brothers at Sacred Heart elementary
school. In 1930, at age 14, Robert asked his parents to let him
enter the junior novitiate in Barrytown, New York, but his
mother thought he was too young and made him wait until he
was 16 to enter the novitiate there in 1932. He received the
brother’s garb and the religious name Brother Bertrand Leo. A
year later he was sent to the scholasticate at De La Salle
College in Washington, D. C., and received the bachelor’s
degree from Catholic University of America in that city in
12
1937. He was assigned to teach at Bishop Loughlin Memorial
High School in Brooklyn, New York, 1937-1941, De La Salle
Institute in New York City, 1941-1943, and the junior novitiate
in Barrytown, 1943-1947. He had the year off for special
studies in the brothers’ international motherhouse in Rome and
in 1948 was appointed to the novitiate faculty in Barrytown. He
was then sent back to New York City to teach at two
elementary schools—St. Bernard's and St. Thomas the Apostle
in Harlem—and was then appointed principal of Cardinal Hayes
High School. Brother Leo was appointed director of first-year
scholastics in Troy, New York, in 1954 and of the scholastics
at De La Salle College in Washington, D.C. in 1955. He was
appointed visitor of the New York District in 1963 and was a
delegate to the brothers’ international general chapter in Rome
in 1966. There he was elected assistant to the superior general
for the English-speaking districts in North America and served
until the next general chapter, in 1976. He returned to his home
district in 1976 and was assigned to La Salle School in Albany,
New York, where he worked with troubled teens for 12 years.
In 1988 he joined the retirement community in Lincroft, New
Jersey, and remained there until his death.
31. None
Produced by Br. James N. Grahmann, FSC