St Francis College - Franciscan Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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31 Chronicle of the Franciscan ©, ne hundred years of labor dedicated to the education of American youth. This, in brief, is the story of the Franciscan Brothers. It is the story of a comparatively small band of men who have given unceasingly of their talents to strengthen youth with Supernatural Doctrine and to arm them with the knowledge of the arts and processes of the modern world. All this has been done in keeping with Christs command, “I have appointed you to go and bear fruit and that fruit should remain . . (JOHN XV, 16) BISHOP LOUGHLIN Tt, ►jght Reverend John Loughlin, d.d., upon being consecrated the first Bishop of Brooklyn, assumed the task of establishing a parish school system. He requested aid from the Irish Congregation of Franciscan Brothers. Two Franciscans, Brother John McMahon and Brother Vincent Hayes, arrived from Galway on May 31, 1858, to begin the new American foundation. MOUNT BELLEW in Ireland from which the first Franciscan Brothers came to Brooklyn. 4

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OF BROOKLYN 1958

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brothers of JBrooklgn ARCHBISHOP McHALE Gave permission to the Mount Bellew Brothers to make a Foundation in America. ' First residence and school of the Franciscan Brothers in Brooklyn. the Fall of 1859 the two Brothers, with the help of a layman, Martin St. Ledger, converted the building into a combi- nation monastery and school, with living quarters for the Brothers established in the basement. Thus, Saint Francis Academy, the first private secondary school in the Diocese of Brooklyn, from which St. Francis College developed, was opened with a faculty of two Brothers and three laymen. In December of the same year, at their own request, the Franciscans were placed “pro tempore” under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Brooklyn. Shortly thereafter, the Franciscans purchased property on Butler Street and founded Brooklyn ' s first Franciscan Novitiate.