Page 52 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

Chapter 6
TO AMERICA AGAIN

a FTER Two yEARS of association with Father Van den
fl noet and one year adrift by himself, Theodore
RF"" was oncq again a man with a purPose. Sometime
in October, 1837, he took leave of Bruges en route to
New York where he landed at the end of that month.
Unfortunately it can not be said positively that his
port of embarkation was Le Havre, for sailing at- the
iame time from that city was the pioneer band of
Brothers of the Christian Schools bound for Quebec,
Canada, via New York' The details of their journey
have been preserved and make very interesting readin-g'*
Presumibly Mr. Ryken sPent his first days in New
York at the home of his friend, J. G. Ross, where he was
always welcome. It is safe to assume that he visited
Madime Parmentier, the great friend of the missionaries,
whom he describes in one of his letters as "the Belgian
lady who lives across the river in Brooklyn."o
Afte. u week devoted to making the necessary social,
diplomatic, and perhaps begging-calls, he visited Bi$op
Oubois in the liitle rectory (still in use) of the old St'
Patrick's Cathedral on Mulberry Street. At seventy-three
the venerable Bishop John Dubois was ready to shp
into voluntary retirement. His had been a hard life,
but as he told the trustees of the Cathedral when they
threatened to deprive him of his salary: "Gentlemen, I
have seen the horrors of the French Revolution and I
could meet them again. I am an old man. I can live in
-* fU" Christian Brothers in the United States, 1848-1948,
Br. Angelus Gabriel, F.S.C., pp. 6t-64.