Villanova University - Belle Air Yearbook (Villanova, PA)

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IN the early years of the nineteenth century, the grounds which today we know as Villanova com- prised the estate of John Rudolph, a Catholic merchant of Philadelphia. The beautiful estate had been appropriately named Belle Air. Mr. Rudolph died in 1858 and in the year 1841, the estate was offered for sale. Such an excellent opportunity for a private country scat or a public institution could not long remain unnoticed. Rev. Thomas Kyle, O.S.A., of St. Augustine's, Philadelphia, and Very Rev. Patrick Moriarity, O.S.A.. Commissary of the Province, recognised it as the ideal location for an establishment of the Augustintan Order, and on Wednesday, October 15, 1841, the day before the one appointed for the public sale. Belle Air was purchased by them for $18,000. On January 5. 1842, the title to Belle Air was granted to the Brothers of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine. The first members of the Order to reside at Villanova were Brothers Dennis Gallagher and Jeremiah Ryan, who, in the spring of 1845. were sent from St. Augustine's, Philadelphia, to Belle Air for the purpose of opening the mansion. According to traditional accounts, Father O’Dwyer, of St. Augustine's, said Mass in the parlor oratory of the mansion and blessed this new Monastery on St. Augustine's Day. August 28. 1845, placing it under the special patronage of St. Thomas of Villanova. No more appropriate selection for the patron saint of the infant establishment could have been made than that of St. Thomas of Villanova. He was a man of truly saintly character, distinguished particularly for his charity to the p x r. With the first Mass and dedication, the institutum was no longer to be known as Belle Air, but henceforth as Villanova. The name of Belle Air, however, has been cherished in tradition to this day. School was begun on September 18, 1845, with an enrollment of six students. During the next two years an enrollment of forty-five was in attendance. The instructors were three priests and four lay teachers. The first floor of the mansion was devoted to classes, the faculty oc- cupied the second, while the students were housed on the third floor. That the life of early Villanova was not one of great comfort may he gleaned from the fact that, before the year 1844, the students' lavatory was in the old wagon-shed of the Rudolph estate. Eleven Villanova, 1842