Manhattan College - Manhattanite Yearbook (Riverdale, NY)

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long and tedious journey to the shores of the Pacific in 1868 and es- tablished the Brothers at the College of St. Mary by the famous Golden Gate in California. Before too many years had passed, the Brothers had become an integral part of the educational system at New Orleans and Santa Fe. The number of vocations to the order grew and the demand for the Broth- ers as educators multiplied through the years. New York City continued to be the hub of acti ity. Manhattan College was building up a rich tra- dition as both teacher and scholar enhanced the reputation of the Christian Brothers and their educa- tional system. Indixidual accomplishments must necessarily be woven into a testimo- nial because there are always those who have singularly distinguished themselves in a cause. It would be 12

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Brother Andronis tion for the scholarship which at this time had become characteristic of the Brothers ' schools. Religious edu- cational circles m ged the province to establish an institution of higher learning to be dedicated to the edu- cational philosophy of St. John Bap- tist De La Salle. In 1863, fifteen years after the founding of the first Christian Brothers school in Ne ' York, the State Board of Regents granted a College charter incorpo- rated under the name of Manhattan College, the first Brothers college in the United States. The Apostles of the Catechism, a title conferred upon the Brothers by Pope Pius X, were not content to station themselves only in the East. They saw in the Far West a fruitful ineyard where they could e entu- ally reap a spiritual harvest for the Lord. The indomitable Brother Jus- tin and se en companions made the 11

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inaccurate to overlook the foresiglu and courage of Brother Facile ( 1800-1877), who as Assistant-Supe- rior General in the period following the Civil War was responsible for the nationwide expansion of the Christian Brothers. He realized the difficulties that would be encoun- tered but also taking into considera- tion the caliber of the Brothers, Brother Facile made the decisions and formulated the plans that were later to pay immeasurable spiritual and educational dividends. There were other sons of St. La Salle who deserve citation. Brother Patrick 0822-1891) devoted his en- ergies to train a nati e clerg ' in the preparation of spiritual and educa- tional text books and was also re- sponsible for the extension of the parochial school system. Then there was the outstanding Brother Azarias f 1847-1893), a man of many gifts who especially distinguished himself as a philosopher, educator, linguist, and lecturer. He earned world-wide recognition for his erudite books, magazine articles, and pamphlets. Among the more famous of his scholarly tomes are The Philoso- phy of Literature, Essays Educa- tional, and Aristode and the Chrisdan Church. Brother Azarias was considered as perhaps the out- standing Catholic literary critic at the latter part of the 19th Century. Lie was also one of the founders of 13