MARIST BROS.' JUBILEE

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12622, 6 December 1926, Page 10

MARIST BROS.' JUBILEE

THEIR WORK IN NEW ZEALAND (Contributed) One of the most important events in the liistory of the Catholic Church in this country will he the celebration this month ol : the golden jubilee of the teaching Order of Marist Brothers. These celebrations will commence in Wellington on Sunday, December 12th. so it is of interest, at this stage, to briefly review the history of the order in New Zealand. In th© education of the bovs and girls of the Catholic Church th'e bulk of the burden in teaching tho hoys is shouldered by the Marist Brothers. Convent schools teach boys and girls in some towns, and in Dunedin boys are instructed by a similar, but separate, order known as the Christian Brothers—who likewise celebrated their jubilee this year. All of these, like the Marist Brothers, are unsalaried. But in New Zealand generally it is the Marist Brothers who are best known in this educational ift vion. The Brothers are also widely associated with popular sport, which has brought them into prominence in the Dominion. A Frenchman, Brother Sigismund—who has died in the jubilee year of his achievement—was the superior of the first New Zealand community. It was following the success of an appeal made just after his consecration by Archbishop—then Bishop—Bed wood, that Brother Sigismund and his three companions were sent to Wellington by the mother house of the Order at Lyons. Tt is thus remarkable that practically all the brothers in New Zealund jprovinco arc natives of tho territory,

and that tho province rose in a few years to tho position of supplying the men for the most responsible positions of tho Order throughout the Southern Hemisphere. Recently all the headmasters of the Marist secondary schools in Australia wore New Zealanders. These included Brother Borgia, now director of Sacred Heart College, Auckland, and Brother Osmond, of tho same collegf, who in turn controlled St. Joseph’s College, ) Hunter’s Hill, Sydney, for which the ; I claim is made that it is the largest t boarding school in the Commonwealth ! or New Zealand. I ORIGIN OF THE ORDER The rapid process of acclimatising, however, had not overshadowed tne » ! debt the Church in New Zealand thus • ! owes to France, even if her earlier ser- ! vices in the establishment ot tho first ' i missions could be forgotten. Now re- ] presented in practically every country ; of tho world, and in most, including China, with native communities that

I are self-governing, the Order began in j January, 1817 with a community of I two, in a tiny building in Lavalla, near Lyons. It derived its name from Maria, Latin for Mary, the mother or Jesus, nud its founder* was Father Champagnat, an associate of Father | Colin, the founder of the Society of j Mary, or Mnrist Fathers. Closely associated in the beginning, the two ! Orders separated early in their history, and have now no connection. The brothers differ from the Marist Fathers and clergy generally in that they do not take orders. Nevertheless, they arc of the state the Church terms “religious.” These “religious,” in the 1 absolute dedication of their lives to the cause of education, are honoured by the Church ns her “corns d’clite.” The particular function of the Marist Brothers is the conducting of primary schools, day and boarding secondary schools, and trade schools. SYSTEM OF TRAINING The constitution of all the provinces of the Marist Brothers, the seat

of whose General diopter is for tb* present in Grugliasco, near Turin, Italy, has remained on the basis of it® first foundation. In New Zealand the establishment in 1917 of the Juniorate at Tuakau, enables New Zealand candidates to receive tfieir scholastic training in their own country; but afterwards they proceed to the Novitiate at Mittngong, New South Wales, to undergo for two years a course or purely religious study and formation. Then, like the monks of old, they take the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, renewed annually for five year® until final “profession.’* One of the biggest objects of the old hoys of the Marist schools in connection with the coming jubilee celebrations is to raise funds to help liquidate the debt on the Marist Training College at Tuakau. Collectors have been busy in this city in this respect over the last several weeks. Although the results have been gratifying, it is hoped to mako the ultimate figure worthy in some manner of the admiration felt by old boys and friends of the school. Towards this end subscriptions .'ire still being received by the hon. general secretary of the ceC’—i-