SACRED HEART BROTHERS

(SC, Official Catholic Directory #1100); a religious congregation of men founded near Lyons, France, Sept. 30, 1821, by Rev. André Coindre, for the care of abandoned or homeless boys. Their principal ministry is education.

To the original group of ten members, Coindre gave the rule of St. augustine and the constitutions of St. Ignatius, intending to provide at a later date a detailed rule of life suited to their particular work. A novitiate was set up at Monistrol, France, and by 1826 the brothers had opened five schools. Coindre died suddenly in 1826, and the work continued under the direction of his brother, Rev. Vincent Coindre, until 1841, when he resigned as superior. The brothers, in a general chapter held in September of that year, unanimously elected Brother Polycarp as superior general. Since that time the brothers have always chosen their superior from their own ranks. The set of rules and statutes composed by Brother Polycarp was approved by the general chapter of 1846. Final approbation of the rules and constitutions was granted by the Holy See in 1927.

In 1847 five brothers were sent from France to the U.S. to take charge of a home for orphans at Mobile, AL.

Within the next two decades the congregation extended its work to other cities in the South. St. Stanislaus School at Bay in St. Louis, MS, was opened in 1854; an orphanage at Natchez, MS, in 1865; and St. Aloysius School in New Orleans, LA, in 1869. In 1870 a novitiate was established in Indianapolis, IN. The congregation made its first foundation in the New England states with the opening of a school in Manchester, NH (1889). In 1872 the brothers extended their work to Canada, establishing a school at Arthabaskaville in the Province of Quebec.

The Brothers of the Sacred Heart also established their presence in other parts of the world: Madagascar and Uruguay (1928), Argentina and Syria (1930), Italy (1931), Basutoland, South Africa (1937); the Egyptian Sudan (1929); Uganda, Africa (1931); Haiti (1943); Brazil (1945); Kenya (1948); the Cameroons (1953); Holland and New Caledonia (1954); England and French Guiana (1955); Colombia and Northern Rhodesia (1956); the Ivory Coast (1957); and the Philippines (1958).

The first general headquarters of the congregation was at Paradis, near Le Puy, France. Later the general council took up residence in Renteria, Spain, and in 1950 headquarters were transferred to Rome, Italy. In the U.S., there are three provinces: New Orleans Province (estab. 1947 and headquartered in New Orleans, LA), New England Province (estab. 1945 and headquartered in Pascoag, RI), and the New York Province (estab. 1960 and headquartered in South Ozone Park, NY).

[b. downey/eds.]