History

History of New York District by Br. Luke Salm (PDF)

Transition from North America, to the United States, to New York 1861-1870

When Brother Facile became Assistant in 1861, he was succeeded as Provincial Visitor by Brother Turibe, a French missionary, who proved unequal to the task. In 1864 it was decided to split the North America Province into two Districts: Canada (Montreal) and the United States (New York). Brother Ambrose (Roarke) was appointed the first Visitor of the United States with residence in New York, leading to the perception that he was in fact the Visitor of New York. Second Street was the headquarters where a novitiate had already been opened in 1861.The new District extended well beyond the New York area to include foundations in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Ellicott’s Mills, Cincinnati, St. Augustine (Florida), New Orleans, Galveston, St. Louis, Carondolet. Jefferson City, and Santa Fe.

In 1866 Brother Patrick (Murphy) was appointed to succeed Brother Ambrose as Provincial Visitor of the United States. As Director at St. Louis in 1855 he had obtained a state charter for Christian Brother College. Already in 1854, as a delegate to the General Chapter of the Brothers, he had received oral permission from the superiors exempting the colleges conducted by the Brothers in America from the ban on teaching Latin. Transferred to New York from St. Louis in 1861, Brother Patrick so expanded the curriculum of the Holy Infancy Academy that in 1863 it was chartered by the State of New York as Manhattan College with Brother Patrick himself as president. At the same time he was collaborating with Doctor Silliman Ives in the foundation of the New York Catholic Protectory. When Brother Patrick was appointed Visitor in 1866 he continued as President of Manhattan College and kept his residence there.

The emergence of New York as a distinct District was complete when in 1868 Brother Justin (McMahon) was summoned from Baltimore to New York and from there, with the title of Visitor, left with seven Brothers to found the District of San Francisco. Two years later St. Louis was constituted a separate District with Brother Edward (Regaud) as Visitor. In the same year Brother Botulph was sent from New York to Santa Fe with the title and powers of Visitor to reorganize the faltering foundations in the Southwest that were later merged for a time with the St. Louis District. These developments effectively divided the United States into three distinct Districts with the New York District composed of the establishments east of the Mississippi. In 1878, the Baltimore District would be separated from New York, forming a fourth District with Brother Christian of Mary as its first Visitor. The earliest surviving document from the superiors in Paris that addresses Brother Patrick as Visitor of New York, rather than Provincial Visitor, is dated 1870.

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