The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-06-21
THE CHRISTIAN BROTHERS

AND ALL WHO HELP TO Sc
CURE RECRUITS FOR THE
JUNIOR NoVITIATEs.
The Institute of the Brothers of the
Christian Schools is in receipt of the
following Brief from the Sovereign
Pontiff Pope Plus x ON the Junior
Novitiates in their Order in which he
recommends the work of recruiting
subjects for the institute to the be-
nevolence of the Ordinaries and the
clergy.
To Our Beloved Son, Brother Gabriel
Marie, Superior General of the
Brothers of the Christian Schools.
Plus X, Pope.
Beloved Son, Health and Apostolic
Benediction:
In the hope that many more of them
may be established and that admis-
sion to them may be sought by more
numerous candidates, so that an
abundance OF workers may be at
hand for you and your religious sufi-
cient for the daily increasing harvest,
you have asked us to bestow the
Apostolic Benediction on those of
your houses which, after the manner
of your father and founder, you are
wont to call Junior Novitiates."
How agreeable has been this re-
quest to Us, you apprehend without
difficulty, dear son, for you know
with what solicitude We watch over
the young and in what esteem We
hold religious men who give them
selves up wholly to the work of train
ing youth both in letters and in the
precepts of Christian wisdom.
That the disciples of Saint John
Baptist de la Sale excel in this most
noble art, their colleges, their schools,
and their other useful works estab-
lished for the welfare of youth, bear
testimony; and We know that, under
their direction, these institutions
prosper not only in Europe, but also
in the distant regions of America and
even in Australia, Asia and Africa
Wherefore heartily rejoicing in this,
and eagerly DESTROYS that the fruit be
more abundant from day to day, We
ourselves also pray the Lord of the
harvest to send laborers into His har-
vest, and We exhort Our venerable
brethren, the Archbishops, the Bish-
ops, and all the clergy, to lend them
selves as willing helpers to your pro-
jects, knowing that they can hope
for everything from religious fam
lily whose benefactions are so fruit
fully perpetuated and so widely diff
fused among the people.
Therefore, may many houses of the
kind mentioned above be everywhere
erected; but, at the same time, may
the spirit of John Baptist de la Sale
dwell therein, so that, from the ex-
ample of their fathers charity, his
sons may direct all their energy and
their strength of soul to this end, that
children of tender years, who are as
yet without experience, may grow up
useful to civil society and not un-
worthy of that greatest of all bless
ings for which they were born.
That all these wishes be realized
We beg of God for you the support of
heavenly aid. May a pledge of this
and testimony of Our gratitude be
the Apostolic Benediction which We
most lovingly in the Lord impart to
you, and especially to those who, in
the Junior Novitiates," are growing
up to be the hope of the institute
which you direct.
Given at ST. Peters, Rome, March
80, 1913, in the tenth year of our
pontificate.
Plus X. POPE.
At the present time the Christian
Brothers have exactly fifty Junior
Novitiates in various parts of the
world. Four of these are in the
United States, one for each of the
four provinces in this country. That
of the st. Louis Province is located at
Glencoe, Missouri, in one of the most
picturesque portions of st. Louis
County.
The Junior Novitiates are prepare
tory schools for boys of at least four
teen years of age who express a de-
sire to prepare to one day become
Christian Brothers. In these shell
tered abodes their youthful minds are
trained to habits of piety and study;
they receive the best of care and at
tention morally, physically and in
tellectually and thus experience the
truth of the words of the psalmist:
1T is good for man when he hath
borne the yoke of the Lord from his
youth"
After passing through the Junior
Novitiates the young neophytes enter
the novitiate proper, where during an
entire year they give themselves up
to the study and practice of the spirit
ual life Their training is completed
at the Normal School of the Order at
Pocantico Hills, New York, where
they become initiated in these tradi-
tional methods of teaching which
have made the work of the Brothers
so successful throughout the world
Young men seeking information re-
garding the Order are directed to ap-
ply to Brother Director, La Sale In
stitute, Glencoe, Mo.