Page 130 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

YEAR OF RNVOLUTIONS IO9
ers oI Christian Instruction and to devote their lives to
teaching the Catholic poor in England. It was under-
stood by Abbe Lamennais and Bishop Wiseman that
this was a tentative arrangement and that as soon as
the number of the English Brothers warranted the
change, a separate organization would be formed in
England. In the summer of 1848 the Catholic Schools
were made eligible to receive Government grants-in-aid.
The Catholic Poor-Schools Committee truilt St. Mary's
Training School in Hammersmith, London, at a cost of
8,000 pounds, of which 2,500 was a Government grant'
These Brothers being trained at Ploermel would staft
it and the student-body rvould be male.
On August 30, 1848, Brother Ryken celebrated his
fifty-first birthday, and as usual the picture of St. Rose
of Lima in the Brothers' chapel was surrounded with
flowers and lighted candles. The ultimate destination
of the Congregation, America, was always kept before
the community-mind.
The birthday celebration was a prelude to the mid-
summer school holidays, which in the 1840's in Bruges
took place during the first two weeks in September.
Both terms, "mid-summer" and "holidays" were used
relatively. On September 8, the feast of the Nativity of
Our Lady and more than likely the terminal day of the
annual retreat, two postulants of no subsequent impor-
tance, were given the habit and Brother John (Seghers)
along with the delicate Brother Vincent (Terhoeven)
pronounced temporary vows.
During the school year just ended, St. Saviour Pri-
mary School had prospered, a reflection of the economic
recovery after the famine years. Brother Ryken felt that
school could do better. He succeeded in freeing himself
from his contract with the owners of La Bellevue, which
had eight years to run, and at the beginning of the new