On Tuesday, February 23d, there passed through Philadelphia, _en route_
for Montreal, Canada, the body of the Rev. Brother Stanislaus, who died
at the Christian Brothers' Normal School, Ammendale, Md., on the 18th of
February. Although but thirty-three years of age, Brother Stanislaus had
filled into this small compass the deeds of a long life. Born in
Montreal, he possessed the characteristic activity and intellectual
grasp of the Northern mind. Much mental labor shattered his never
overstrong constitution. Brother Stanislaus was quite an adept in the
field of literature; as a teacher he had no compeer in Canada; he was,
in addition to these, an expert geologist, having made a thorough study
of the science while directing the scientific department of the
Brothers' Academy, Quebec. He is a great loss to the Canadian Province,
as he filled for the last three years the position of Inspector-General
of the Schools.
Benoit Robert, or Brother Facile, the founder of the Christian Brothers'
schools in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans, and
other cities in this country, died in Marseilles on April 2, 1877. He
desired to be buried in the land in which he had labored so long and
well. After the lapse of nine years his desire is to be complied with.
His body will arrive on the next French steamer, and a permit for its
transfer to Amawalk, Westchester County, New York State, has been
obtained. Brother Facile lacked but a fortnight of being seventy-seven
years of age when he died. He was born in Cublize, France, and became a
Brother before he attained his majority. He came to America in 1848. He
was a friend and assistant of Archbishop Hughes.
Brother John Augustine Grace, who died at the Christian Brothers'
Novitiate, Marino, Clontarf, Ire., on January 25th, in his 86th year and
the sixty-third of his religious profession, was one of the foremost
educators of the century. He entered the congregation of the Christian
Brothers, founded in Ireland by his eminent countryman, Edmund Ignatius
Rice, at Waterford, in 1823. Thenceforth, throughout his long life, he
filled many important positions in the various Houses of the Brotherhood
in Ireland and England, everywhere inculcating in the minds of his young
charges an unswerving devotion to the cause of Ireland and the Church.
Among his eminent friends may be named Daniel O'Connell, Father Mathew,
G. Griffin, Lord O'Hagan, Dr. Murray, Dr. MacHale, the two Irish
Cardinals, as well as the most gifted of the patriotic spirits that gave
our country so great a name from 1843 to 1848.
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