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Patrician Brothers

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A teaching Patrician Brother in his habit on a stained glass window in Tullow, designed and created by George Walsh.
Congregatio Fratrum a Sancto Patricio
Abbreviation FSP
Nickname Patrician Brothers
Formation 2 February 1808[1]
Founder Bishop Daniel Delany
Type Lay Religious Congregation of Pontifical Right for men[2]
Headquarters Generalate:
Delany Place, 18 Boomerang Road, The Entrance, NSW 2261, Australia[2]
Members 164 members as of 2020[1]
Motto Latin: Christus in Corde Omnium
English: Christ is in all Hearts
Superior General Br Paul O'Keeffe
Ministry Educational works
Parent organization Catholic Church
Website www.patricianbrothers.org

The Patrician Brothers officially named Brothers of Saint Patrick (Latin: Fratres Sancti Patricii), abbreviated F.S.P. is a Catholic lay religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men founded for the religious and literary education of the youth and the instruction of the faithful in Christian piety.

The Patrician Brothers are an Ireland-based Roman Catholic congregation

History

The Congregation of the Brothers of St. Patrick was founded by Bishop Daniel Delany, on the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on 2 February 1808. The four founding members were Patrick McMahon (Brother John Baptist), Richard Fitzpatrick (Brother Bernard), Ambrose Dawson (Brother Joseph) and Maurice Cummins (Brother John Evangelist).[3] Under the personal instruction of the bishop, the group of men was established as a diocesan institution.[4]

In succeeding years, branches were established in other dioceses of Ireland. Around 1846, they were in charge of a trade school near Baltimore, Maryland, in America.[5] The Brothers were invited by several Indian and Australian bishops to erect schools in their dioceses. Several foundations were made, among them those of Sydney, to which archdiocese the Brothers were invited by Cardinal Moran;[6][7] and that of Madras in India in 1875, undertaken at the request of Bishop Stephen Fennelly.[8]

For the first eighty years, the Brothers were under the authority of their respective bishops. However, in 1885 the Brothers made application to the Holy See for the approval of the institute, to constitute a central governance board and to establish a common novitiate. Sounding opinions from the bishops in whose dioceses the Brothers were established, Pope Leo XIII provisionally approved the congregation for five years by a Rescript dated 6 January 1888, and, on 8 September 1893,[9] he issued a decree of final confirmation. This included approving their rules and constitution, the facilities and powers necessary for their institute, and constituting India and Australia as separate Provinces. The Brothers of the Provinces of Ireland, India, and Australia, were now under the authority of their elected Congregation Leader and his Council. From 1888 to 2010, the Congregation Leader lived in Ireland, since then India and Australia.

The archive of the Patrician Brothers is stored in the Delany Archive in Carlow College.[10]

Work scope

As of 2022, there were 160 Patrician Brothers serving in seven countries: Ireland (1808), India (1875), Australia (1883), USA (1948), Kenya (1961), Papua New Guinea (1968), Ghana (2008). The Brothers have also ministered in Yemen, Dubai, South Sudan, and Qatar. The largest Province is that of India-Ghana 106 Brothers.

The scope of their work embraces mainly primary, secondary, and tertiary education. But there are Brothers who work in parishes, health centres, and centres for homeless children.

Notable Patrician Brothers

  • Br Serenus OKelly, Pioneer, (1780–1859)
  • Br Paul O'Connor, Galway Pioneer, (1796–1878)
  • Br. Dermot Dunne, Superior General & Historian, Patrician Brothers (1950–1956)
  • Br. Augustine Holton, Superior General (1980–1986)
  • Br Linus Walker, Patrician Historian (1930–2021)
  • Br. Colm O'Connell, missionary teacher, and athletics coach

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Patrician Brothers — (Or BROTHERS OF SAINT PATRICK).

This Brotherhood was founded by the Right Rev. Dr. Daniel Delaney, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, at Tullow, in the County of Carlow, Ireland, on the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in 1808, for the religious and literary education of youth and the instruction of the faithful in Christian piety. Catholic Ireland was at this period just emerging from the troubled times of the penal laws. These laws made it treasonable for a Catholic parent to procure for his child a religious and secular education in consonance with his belief, and consequently not only were the young deprived of the means of instruction, but adults also were in a state of enforced ignorance of Christian doctrine and its practices. Bishop Delaney set about the good work of founding the Religious congregation of the Brothers of Saint Patrick in his diocese, for the purpose of affording his people that education of which they had been so long deprived. He chose from among the catechetical instructors of the Sunday schools seven young men who formed the nucleus of the new order, and under the personal instruction of the bishop, and direction of his successor, the illustrious Dr. Doyle, the congregation was established as a diocesan institution. In succeeding years filiations were established in other dioceses of Ireland, and the Brothers were invited by several Australian and Indian bishops to these distant countries. Several foundations were made, among them those of Sydney, to which archdiocese the Brothers were invited by Cardinal Moran; and that of Madras in India, undertaken at the request of the late prelate of that diocese, Bishop Stephen Fennelly.

In 1885 the Brothers made application to the Holy See for the approval of the congregation, for constituting a central government and for establishing a common novitiate. The request was granted. After taking the opinions of the bishops in whose dioceses the Brothers were labouring, Pope Leo XIII provisionally approved the congregation for five years by a Rescript dated 6 January, 1888, and on 8 September, 1893, issued a decree of final confirmation, highly commending the good work hitherto accomplished by the Brothers, approving of their rules and constitutions, granting them all the facilities and powers necessary for carrying on the duties of their congregation, constituting India and Australia separate provinces, and imparting to the institute the Apostolic Benediction. The houses of the order, which had hitherto been independent and separate communities, were united under a superior general who with four assistants governs the congregation.

A general chapter of the Patrician communities assembles every six years. As a result of the confirmation of the institute the Brothers have been enabled to perfect and extend their congregation in Ireland, and to open new colleges, schools, and orphanages in the above-mentioned foreign countries. The scope of their work, which embraces primary, intermediate and university education, has been much extended in recent years. The introduction of a scheme of technical and scientific study by the different educational departments has been warmly supported by the Brotherhood; while by their management of orphanages and industrial schools they aid thousands of youths to raise themselves to a higher place in the social scale. Their residential colleges and secondary day-schools equip the students for responsible positions in life. The colleges of the Brothers in India are affiliated to the Allahabad and Calcutta Universities, in which their students have distinguished themselves; while in Australia, notwithstanding that the Brothers receive no State aid, their pupils compete successfully with those of the highly subsidized Government schools for positions in the civil service. On the occasion of the centenary in 1908, His Holiness Pope Pius X bestowed on the order many favours and special indulgences. The superior general and his assistants reside at the mother-house, Tullow, Ireland, where are also the novitiate and house of studies.

References

  1. Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 "Brothers of Saint Patrick (F.S.P.)".
  2. Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 http://www.gcatholic.org/orders/307. htm
  3. Back to citation Rt Rev Dr Daniel Delany's story, Carlow Nationalist; accessed 6 February 2015.
  4. Back to citation newadvent.org/cathen/11553a.htm Byrne, Jerome. "Patrician Brothers." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 21 January 2019
  5. Back to citation Clarke, Richard Henry (1872). Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States. Vol. I. New York: P. O'Shea Publisher.
  6. Back to citation Aitken, Stephen (1980). "The Patrician Brothers in Australia". Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society. 6 (3): 1–5. Retrieved 14 December 2024.
  7. Back to citation O'Connell, Paul (1980). "The Expulsion of the Patrician Brothers from the Diocese of Bathurst, 1924-1927". Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society. 6 (3): 6–11. Retrieved 14 December 2024.
  8. Back to citation ""Our Humble Beginning in India", Patrician Brothers India". Archived from the original on 17 February 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  9. Back to citation Catholic University of America (2003). New Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 (2 ed.). Thomson Gale. ISBN 0787640042. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
  10. Back to citation Archive, delanyarchive.ie; Retrieved 26 January 2018.
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