Aquinas-Landmark-Winter-2021

6 AQUINAS LANDMARK | SUMMER 2020 W hat ’ s N ews F ocus O n F aith . . . WINTER 2021 The Basilian Fathers’ residence located at 402 Augustine St. The Congregation The original Church of St. Basil. As the Congregation of St. Basil begins the yearlong celebration of its 200th anniversary, Fr. John Huber, CSB ‘81 writes of the Congregation’s history, local impact, and how the philosophy of Basilian Catholic education has shaped generations of Aquinas students. In Rochester, the Basilian Fathers’ first ministry was at The Aquinas Institute which had previously been established by the Diocese of Rochester. After ministering there for several years, the Basilians eventually took over the administration of the school in 1937. In the late 1940s, Basilians purchased land in Pittsford and established St. John Fisher College, and a few decades later, took over administration of Christ the King Parish in Irondequoit, later to become St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish. It is important to note, however, that before arriving in our hometown of Rochester, the Congregation of Saint Basil had already offered over a century of ministry. In post-revolutionary France, the Catholic Church was being persecuted in what was known as the Reign of Terror. Ten diocesan priests from the impoverished department of the Ardèche, a mountainous and somewhat isolated region of southeastern France, joined forces to educate young men to become priests in defiance of the Revolutionary government’s prohibition of ecclesial activity. One of the places they hid was at the small centuries-old church of Saint-Basile. The townspeople became very protective of these priests, referring to them as “the priests of Saint-Basile”, or “Les Basiliens.” In 1822 when the political situation stabilized, these ten priests who had recently opened the first Basilian school in the city of Annonay, “Le Collège du Sacré Coeur,” officially petitioned Rome to become a new congregation of religious men, officially taking Saint Basil as their patron. ARRIVAL IN THE NEWWORLD Across the Atlantic Ocean in 1850, Bishop Armand de Charbonnel, a former Basilian student in Annonay was appointed the second Bishop of Toronto, Canada. He saw a need for Catholic education among the poor Irish Catholic families in his diocese. He invited his former teachers to come to Canada to establish a school in Toronto. The Basilians sent four priests, representing a significant percentage of their total number of available priests. In 1852, St. Michael’s College opened its doors offering in the French style, a combination of high school and post- secondary education. With the growth of vocations and at the requests of local bishops in the New World, the Basilians continued to establish and staff schools and parishes in communities across North America including Owen Sound and Sandwich, Ontario; Detroit, Michigan; Waco, Houston, and LaPorte, Texas; Gary, Indiana; Albuquerque and Las Cruces, New Mexico; Vancouver, British Colombia; Calgary and Edmonton Alberta, and Rochester, New York. LATIN AMERICAN APOSTOLATES In addition to educational endeavors in Texas such as St. Thomas High School and the University of St. Thomas,