Cretin High School - Cretinite Yearbook (St Paul, MN)

Page 11 text:

Brother Jucondian, the Director, and Brother Diogenius John arrived on All Soul's Day, 1871, to take charge of the two classes that then made up the Cathedral school. However heavy may have been the new ruling hand, the school thrived. Next year there were four classes, five Brothers. By 1875 Brothers were teaching in the Assumption and St. Mary's parish schools as well, and for more than ten years to follow, growth in the number of pupils and in the quality of the work is the main thread of the story. ln the eighties it became evident that not only was the old Cathedral school too small to care for the number of boys seeking admission, but that the building itself, hastily erected thirty-five years back, was no longer suitable. A new school solid and imposing, was constructed not far away on Sixth and Main, and tittingly named Cretin after its real founder. ln 1888 the boys left the old building, perhaps not without regrets,

Page 10 text:

lreland had heard of Brothers-the Christian Brothers-who were conducting schools in Chicago and St. Louis successfully and-this interested him-firmly. A religious order of teachers would supply the unity of common spirit, common ideals, and common methods that his school needed. He wrote to the superiors. He wrote several times, begging, entreating, caioling. And he also prayed. His prayers were answered, even at the cost of burning half the city of Chicago. The great Chicago fire of l87l burned homes, churches and schools impartially lamong the latter, several in which the Christian Brothers taughtl and thus generously provided St. Paul with the teachers it so badly needed. Years later when Father Ireland had become Archbishop Ireland he reflected happily, lf there is one thing in my life that l am proud of, it is the fact that l brought the Christian Brothers to St. Paul.

Page 12 text:

and marched proudly to their new quarters. They carried with them a brick from the crumbling old red school and placed it on the Director's desk in the new school-a solitary link with the wild but glamorous past. St. Paul had noticeably matured since l85l when fur trading was practically its only business. Now the city was taking shape as a commercial and industrial center of the northwest. ln answer to these changed conditions and the demands of the students, a three year commercial high school department was added to the regular eight grades in l889. Yet despite changes in location and the expansion of its facilities, Cretin retained much of the old spirit engendered by the Brothers in the Cathedral School. Thoroughness more than brilliance characterized the methods of instructionp discipline was maintained through strictness tempered with kindly understanding.