The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1940-03-14
Commissioners
Especial to the Democrat)


Garrison, N. Y, March IA fire
destroyed one of the largest build
ings at Graymoor, monastery Of the
Roman Catholic Order Of the Fran
ciscan Friars Of the Atonement,
yesterday and damage was estimate
ed at $4,000. Seventy-five brown
robed friars and an equal number
Of homeless men, guests of the friars,
risked their lives to save records
and equipment from the building,
four-story structure Of fieldstone,
housing the offices Of "The Lamp"
periodical Of the order.
The fire, believed by firemen to
have started either from defective
electric wiring or spontaneous COM
bustion in documents in a room on
the fourth floor, was discovered at
$50 q. m. The Garrison Fire De-
partment and one company from
Peekskill raced to the building,
about two thirds Of the way up the
90O-foot Mount of Atonement, and
found that water pressure in n.y.
drants at that altitude was so low
that only q trickle came out Of the
hose.
Chemicals Used In Vain
While some firemen used chemi-
Gals In q futile effort to check the
blaze, others hooked up 1,750 feet
of hose to a hydrant on the Albany
Post Road, near the entrance to the
$50 acres owned by the order.
Pumps forced the water through to
the fire, but too late to save the
building.
Before the fire spread downward
from the fourth floor, the friars and
their guests ran through the other
floors taking out objects ranging
from a 1000 pound safe to type
writer's, desks, lamps and other fur
nishings. The safe contained many
Of the personal papers Of the Very
Rev. Paul James Francis, founder
and father general Of the order, who
died on Feb. 8. Among the papers
saved was manuscript completed
by Father Paul not lang before his
death. It was '"The Life OF Theresa
Neumann," q biography of the stig-
matized woman of Konnersreuth,
Germany. (The case OF Theresa
Neumann has aroused worldwide
interest because of the report that,
at intervals, stigmata are said to
appear on the body in place corre-
spending to the wounds on the body
of Christi
Anothr Of Father Paul's manu-
scripts, his autobiography, was re-
moved from the building some days
ago and sent to the orders print
shop in Peekskill.
Roof Caves In
At 1918 a. M, soon after the SAFE
was taken from the building, fire.
men stopped the friars and home
less men from entering the struc-
ture. At 10:45 q. m. the roof caved
in and portions of 1t crashed
through to the basement.
Father Pauls decision forty-six
years ago, when he was the Rev.
Lewis Thomas Watson, an Episco-
pal minister in Kingston, N. Y, to
found an order modelled after the
Franciscan ideal, resulted in the es-
adjustment of a missionary order
with seventeen houses in this coun-
try and Canada and branches IN
ireland and Italy.
AS an auxiliary of the Society OF
the Atonement Father Paul estab-
lished the Missionary Association OF
which, with Graymoor as a point OF
the Union-That-No thing-B e-Lost
distribution, has sent 100000
worth of food and other articles to
missionaries throughout the world.
Father Paul founded and supervised
st. Christopher's Inn, one Of twenty
buildings at Graymoor, where IN
twenty years 10000 homeless men
Of all faiths have been fed and
sheltered, with no questions asked.
In 1909 Father Paul and the Society