Introduction
Saint Joseph Boys High School on Merrimack Street in Little Canada appeared at a benignly opportune time in my life. I thank my mother for this educational selection when it might have been cheaper and easier to send me to see the registrar at Lowell High School downtown in the city.
Recall that the Eglise Saint-Jean Baptiste located in “le petit Canada” at the corner of Aiken and Merrimack was the epicenter of religious, cultural, and linguistic fervor outlined years before as the daily strategy of Franco-Americans in the city to maintain an independent but vibrant ethnic survival of their faith and their language. This movement called “la Survivance” and the “Three Pillars of Survival” (more on these movements later) had been imported by the first Quebec immigrants to the city as a practical means of not letting the Anglophone influence of Protestantism and the English language completely dominate their lives, spiritual and otherwise. Essentially, survivance meant cultural and religious survival.
In January of 1953, I had lost my father to pneumonia during his brief stay at St-.Joseph Hospital after he had vomited tiny chunks of his stomach onto our kitchen floor while I was attending Sunday vespers at church with my mother. This graphical depiction might, perhaps, seem less than delicate, but the actual events that followed this drama lead to major emotional, financial, and traumatic consequences that then lasted a lifetime for all of my family members.
We found ourselves in a deep emotional downturn mixed in with sudden poverty, loneliness, fear, uncertainty, anger, abandonment, bewilderment, and a clinging sense of depression bordering on despair. All that remained was the five of us with no means of legally surviving.
Who would step up to help a poor widow and her four sniveling children when our creditors such as the grocer, milkman, the oil delivery guy, the iceman (we only had an icebox for perishables), and our landlord banged angrily on our kitchen door? All our relatives in town were either too poor themselves or too wrapped up in their own affairs to provide any direct sustenance.
In short, the industrial seas were rough and the lifeboats were too few in number.
How did our immigrant relatives, “les canadiens francais” of Lowell, manage to avoid undernourishment and eviction from their crowded tenements back in the 1890s and into the 20th century when under-employment in the textile and shoe leather manufacturing industries was a haunting, frightening, and quite unpleasant fact of life in Spindle City?
Enter the Marist Brothers and the Caring Works of Marcellin Champagnat
Fortunately, for the human race, there are persons among us, who take a special, personal interest in the support, well-being, and educational development of less fortunate persons, especially, children, that we encounter on our self-centered, busy journey through Life’s magnificent Forum. But, behind this noisy flurry of competing, angry voices and jostling encounters, there can, sometimes, appear someone with a kindly face that actually recognizes our frail humanity. The hero of this story is Marcellin Champagnat, the founder of the Marist Brothers back around 1830 near Lyons, France.
If the reader remembers his/her historical readings regarding the French Revolution (1789 – 1799) including all of the emotional turmoil and financial ruin plus the public guillotine displays, and the drownings, hangings, and physical torture inflicted upon supporters of the monarchy, then it will come as no surprise that the average man, woman, and child walking the streets of the new republic often felt tired, if not exhausted.
But, after the following Napoleonic Wars (1800 -1815) (estimated casualties ranging from 3,250,000 to 6,500,00), the typical citizen’s enthusiasm for the glories of the grand Empire had greatly subsided. Perhaps, a reconciliation between the Church and the state might, eventually, bring a sense of safety and purpose to the lives of many?
A capsule version of political life in France after the abdication and exile of Napoleon Bonaparte and the subsequent restoration of the Bourbon family kings in 1815 would easily fill the pages of scholarly dissertations of many doctoral candidates seeking approval from the Académie Française.
However, it is sufficient to say that, as a stopgap measure, this solution worked until 1830 when the second French Revolution, the “July Revolution“, took place. The immediate result of this next political upheaval in France meant the overthrow of the French king Charles X and the ascent of his cousin, Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans. Fortunately, Louis Phillippe was more astute in handling disputes between members of the ruling aristocracy, the Catholic Church, and the ever-present republican elements in the society.
However, even in the 1830s, some citizens with a fervent republican bent still embraced the fundamental ideals of the Revolution as expressed in this famous motto (une devise):
“liberté, égalité, fraternité ou la mort“
which translates to: “liberty, equality, fraternity or death”.
Clearly, this type of political pizazz might lead to unfortunate misunderstandings in the open marketplace, so it was best to remain neutral in heated encounters. But, fortunately for the designated hero of this story, Marcellin Champagnat remained neutral in his political affiliations. Also, his new message on social change did not conflict with authorities, political or religious in France, at that time period.
As a young man in the rural, poverty-stricken farmlands near St-Etienne (Loire, France}, he often encountered boys and young men with little to no educational background. He found this situation terrible and cruel so later in his spiritual journey, he and a few other dedicated young adults formed an association called: the Marist Brothers, a religious congregation of brothers in the Catholic Church devoted to Mary and dedicated to education.
The spirit of this association can be summarized by examining two of Marcellin’s quotes (see below) that were formulated during this period of barbarous, political, and religious turmoil. Recall that during these troubled times, hundreds and, maybe, thousands of his fellow citizens were being decapitated at boisterous, public gatherings. Being too openly religious could result in meeting the razor-sharp “widow-maker” next weekend.
“‘We aim at something better: we want to educate them, to instruct them in
their duty, to teach them to practice it, to give them a Christian spirit and attitudes
and to form them to religious habits and the virtues possessed by a good
Christian and a good citizen.’”
“To bring up children properly, we must love them, and love them all
equally”.
The patriotic ideal of the good citizen doing good deeds for others in the 1830s did not conflict apparently with the accepted republican norms of the period.
Summary
It was under these educational principles that in 1953 thru 1957 (approximately 120 years after the first Marist school opened in France) that the civilizing effects of this teaching association first pulsed in my system. And, for better or worst, this is how my personal search for a career direction started.