With special attention being focused on the vocations lived by men and women religious during the celebration of the 14-month Year of Consecrated Life called for by Pope Francis, Rhode Island Catholic is publishing a series of reflections on religious orders whose members serve in the diocese.
“To rescue young people from ignorance, to prepare them for life, and to give them a knowledge and love of religion,” are the words that capture the founding charism of the religious order of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart. A founding charism is a movement of the Holy Spirit, a living, breathing movement, that compels the Brothers to continue to seek ways to respond to the needs of the time and place in which they find themselves. Historical, cultural, sociological, economic and other movements in different periods require the response of the Church, especially to people on the margins, new immigrant communities, children living in poverty and persons experiencing the difficulties of economic and moral collapse. It is precisely to those issues that the Brothers of the Sacred Heart have responded for 194 years, and particularly during the 126 years that the Brothers have served in the Diocese of Providence.
The Brothers of the Sacred Heart were originally founded in 1821 by a diocesan priest with missionary zeal by the name of André Coindre in Lyon, France, in response to the needs of poor and dechristianized youth in the aftermath of the French Revolution into the early to mid-1800s. At first, the purpose of the Brothers was to educate boys and young men in the basics of education and in the skills of silk weaving. Since many of these young boys and young men were orphaned and lacked the basics of food, clothing and shelter, the Brothers gathered the young into “Providences,” residential work sites where education could be not only in traditional subjects and a skill, but in order to “prepare them for life.” As the needs of the area and the country of France changed, the Brothers were called upon by local churches to rejuvenate the Catholic elementary educational system in France.
Brother Polycarp, the first Brother to serve as Superior General, saw a new field of ministry in the new world of the United States and Canada. A call from the Bishop of Mobile, Ala., Bishop Michael Portier, an immigrant from France to the United States, brought the Brothers of the Sacred Heart in 1847 to care for the boys in orphanages. Brothers then populated various cities and towns in the South, moving up the Mississippi River, to Arthabaska, Canada, in 1872.
In the New England area, another historical development created a need for Brothers of the Sacred Heart to teach in parish schools: French-speaking Canadians, the majority of whom were Catholic, arrived in the cities that grew as a result of the Industrial Revolution along the banks of rivers in cities and towns throughout New England: Lewiston, Maine; Manchester and Nashua, N.H.; Haverhill, Mass.; and Central Falls and Woonsocket, R.I. The large Franco-American population and the French language national churches of that group grew. They required schools in which their children could learn in the language of the family. “Celui qui perd la langue perd la foi!” (He who loses his language loses his faith) was a rallying cry for the creation of Catholic schools where at least half if not all the school day was conducted in French, and specifically the teaching of religion. In Woonsocket, the Brothers arrived at the elementary school at Precious Blood Parish, known as “Collège Sacré Coeur” in 1898. The Brothers’ presence and ministry at the school made them the natural choice when the pastor who had invited them, Father (later Monsignor) Charles Dauray, had a vision for a boarding high school for boys atop Bernon Heights. A collaboration of the Brothers, the parish, the pastor and Bishop Hickey made possible the construction and opening of Mount Saint Charles Academy in 1924. Mount Saint Charles Academy continues today as a coeducational middle and high school, grades 6 through 12, with a full college preparatory program, as the charism has again been adapted to the needs of time and place.
After the school at Precious Blood Parish, but before Mount Saint Charles Academy, another school for Franco-American boys was opened in Central Falls, known as Sacred Heart Academy. Opened as a parish school of Notre Dame du Sacré Coeur Parish, Académie Sacré Coeur, was conducted in a former broom factory along busy Broad Street in the city. The lack of proper facilities did not prevent this school from thriving in academics, athletics, religious and spiritual formation, and preparation of young men for college and the work force, including success for those joining military service. While the school closed in 1970 due to declining enrollment and changing demographics, the spirit of the alumni remains strong and many of the school’s graduates maintain contact with one another and the Brothers of the Sacred Heart through class reunions and other gatherings.
Other establishments developed in response to needs that arose. During the Depression of the 1930s, the boarding school at Mount Saint Charles needed a source of dairy products and other fresh food items. The Brothers purchased the Hunter Carson White house and the Harris Homestead Farm in the village of Harrisville, R.I. As it became obvious that the Brothers of the Sacred Heart in New England would develop into an entity unto itself, the property in Harrisville became the site of the initial formation program at the high school level, which opened in 1943. New buildings would be constructed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, housing novitiate and collegiate programs. Those buildings would evolve, with one, Cor Jesu Terrace on Rte. 98, Steere Farm Road, becoming a nursing home and now a public elementary school, and the novitiate building, which later became known as the Provincial House, becoming the site of the offices for the provincial administration and now the retirement center.
While fewer men are joining the community, the Brothers are now sharing the charism by inviting their lay colleagues to join a three-year formation including education, spirituality and integration in the Coindre Leadership Program. As partners in mission, together with the Brothers who serve at Mount Saint Charles Academy, the charism lives on in everyone who gets to know the lives and mission of Fr. Coindre, Brother Polycarp, Brother Xavier and all the founders of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart. In all the various ministries of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart in the Diocese of Providence, the people with whom and to whom they minister are known, valued and treasured.
