This Month in Provincial History

Maria Hayes Features

Notable events for the month of September include:

One Year Ago
Sept. 21, 2014 — Friars and their partners-in-ministry were among thousands who assembled in Midtown Manhattan for the People’s Climate March to show their concern for the planet. (Many HNP ministries are using Pope Francis’s encyclical, “Laudato Si’,” to hold educational and advocacy events related to the environment.)

Five Years Ago
Sept. 11, 2010 — Holy Name Province released a statement denouncing anti-Muslim rhetoric and expressing the need for respect and religious freedom for all people. (This fall, St. Bonaventure University is opening a Center for Arab and Islamic Studies on its Allegany, N.Y., campus.)

10 Years Ago
Sept. 15, 2005 — A celebration was held at St. Bonaventure University to mark the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the friars in Western New York. (The First Sesquicentennial Mass was celebrated by Xavier Seubert, OFM, then guardian of St. Bonaventure Friary. Franciscan historian Dominic Monti, OFM, then Provincial Vicar, gave an academic lecture titled “The Coming of the Friars.”)

Sept. 24, 2005 — St. Pacificus Church, Humphrey, N.Y., observed its 150th anniversary. (St. Pacificus was the first of many mission churches founded by the friars in Western New York. In 1855, Fr. Pamfilo da Magliano, OFM, constructed the wooden framed church at a cost of $500.)

20 Years Ago
Sept. 23, 1995 — The “House of Peace” was dedicated at Mt. Irenaeus in Western New York. (The Mountain will celebrate its 30th anniversary on Sept. 19 and 20 with a Mass and a potluck supper.) 

30 Years Ago
Sept. 17, 1985 — The new Holy Name College in Silver Spring, Md., was dedicated on the feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis. (The friars vacated the old Holy Name College in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington, D.C., a year and four months earlier. One friar, Stephen Hartdegen, OFM, was present at the dedication ceremony for the old location in 1930 and the new location in 1985, and had been a member of the Holy Name community for all of the intervening years.)

40 Years Ago
Sept. 5, 1975 — Mathias Doyle, OFM, was appointed the 17th president of St. Bonaventure University. (During his 15-year term, SBU witnessed the construction of several buildings — Murphy Hall, the garden apartments, the observatory, the fitness center and the Plassmann Hall annex. He is the namesake of Doyle Hall, which was originally built as a friary and later became a student dormitory.)

Sept. 17, 1975 — A new house of pre-novitiate formation was inaugurated at St. Anne Church-Friary, Fair Lawn, N.J. (The postulancy program is currently based at Holy Name College in Silver Spring.)

— Compiled by Maria Hayes

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