THE MARIST BROTHERS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume 31, Issue 44, 31 October 1907, Page 19

THE MARIST BROTHERS

THE NEW SUPERIOR

' "News by cable announces "Che election of the new Superior-General of the Marist Brothers. On the demise of the late General, a General Chapter was convoked at Gruigjli'asco,. Italy. This met on the 13th inst., and chose the Rev. BrotKer Stratonique to be the new Superior of the Orcler. - The newly chosen General is a man of great energy, resource, and capacity. His age is 6-1. i<or years he was a professoF of mathematics and then Director in the College of Valbenoite, St. Etienne, an institution' whose scholastic results placed it, previous to the suppression and dispersion of the teaching Orders, in the front rank of collegiate" establishments in France. In 1883 he was appointed Assistant, succeeding Brother TKeophane, a former Director of Valbenoite, wliom he now succeeds as general. As Assistant, "before the days of persecution and expatriation set in, the Province over which he had control numbered 140TJ Brothers. The duties he haft to discharge were many -and onerous, involving long and frequent journeys, and a voluminous correspondence, to keep ab>*east of which" needed long vigils at night and early risings at morning. He was entrusted with the Province of the United States and Canada ; and feeling the need and utility of a knowledge of English for the work he had to do he began its study at '±0 with tHe zeal and buoyancy of . a boy. In order to acquire a true accent and a facility in conversation, he went to London, and took up his residence with the Brothers who were doing parochial work in Regent Square. TEere he employed his time teaching a primer class by day, and attendinb to the duties of his distant Province by night. He is fond of telling of his experiences in the big metropolis and of narrating incidents of his class work. The English node of pronunciation, difficult at all times to foreigners, is made still more embarrassing by the Cockney accent. As fie advanced in his studies, he thought tie ought to set about remedying *tnis lingual defect ; so on one occasion he made a laudable but futile effort to correct his young charges. His success may be imagined from the fact that he was promptly told by a precocious urchin : ' You cannot speak English properly yourself.' By persevering eflort, however, he succeeded in obtaining such a mastery of the language as enables him to write forcibly and to converse fluently. His tongue, for all that, is not a too willing hanamaid, ana failing to utter his thoughts as rapidly as his mind conceives them, he is often tempted to end jn flowing French what he begins in " hesitating English. During the past four years he has had many exciting experiences. Anxious to keep in touch with his Brothers, who, iaffliful to their trust and obligations, - have, in the guise of secular teachers, been conducting schools in many parts of France, he has made \ many journeys through the country disguised in miany ways. Through" his correspondence being ' gxahamised,' and through his suspected movements, he has been frequently arrested aud arraigned before the tribunals of justice ; but he has either succeeded in baffling the minions of the law or escaped with small fines. Last year he, as a delegate of the late SuperiorGeneral, made a visit to New Zealand, and attended the annual retreat a$ Auckland, where his genial and ardent nature gained the confidence, esteem, and aiiection of the Brothers.