The Midwest is the home to a sizeable portion of the U.S. Catholic population. Industrial cities like Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, and Milwaukee became centers of expansive growth for the U.S. Catholic Church. Building this Catholic presence was the work of countless men and women, many of them in vowed religious communities, who donated time and treasure to serve the needs of a growing Catholic populace.
Much has been written about these groups. Richard Janet supplies a well-written and interesting account of one religious community that is often overlooked: the Congregation of the Mission, popularly known as the Vincentians or the Lazarists. The frame for the Vincentians’ story is the history of their important administrative and educational center, St. Mary's of the Barrens in Perryville, Missouri. The author sees in this remote settlement “a microcosm of the American Catholic Church and a case study for the transformation of a religious community in a changing world.” (17) In fact, this Vincentian seminary in rural southern Missouri was not quite typical of the heavily urban-based Catholic enterprises in the Midwest. Yet Janet seeks to lift the veil behind its “silent service . . . [and] low profile in the American Church.” (17). The author notes that “it was the first institution of higher learning west of the Mississippi and the fourth Catholic seminary in the United States.”
The Congregation of the Mission was formed in France in 1652 by the legendary apostle of charity, St. Vincent de Paul (1581–1660). In 1815, Bishop Louis William Valentine Dubourg, the first bishop of St. Louis, welcomed the community to the United States. In 1818, with Dubourg's blessing, they established a seminary at The Barrens, a location near Perryville in southern Missouri. On this site, the Vincentians trained priests, inducted new members into religious life, operated a parish church, and founded a headquarters for missionary parish work throughout the region including Texas. Vincentians were, in many ways, church founders of this area. Students of the growth of U.S. Catholicism in the American West should find this book very helpful in understanding the origins of the U.S. church in Louisiana and Texas.
The Barrens began with simple structures, adding new buildings over the years. When the Vincentians erected a new western province in 1888, the Barrens was the motherhouse and the center for Vincentian formation. It also attracted students for the diocese of St. Louis. The Vincentians supported themselves with farming, some of it done by Vincentian Brothers. These clerics also had slaves, a matter of much embarrassment for religious orders today. Janet does not shy away or euphemize this painful topic as he notes the Vincentian adaptation to the border state culture of slavery.
The enterprising Vincentians found other ways to raise funds. As did many religious communities, they “cashed in” on popular devotion. Drawing from their community's spiritual treasure house, they encouraged devotion to Mary under the title of “Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.” This referred to an image of Mary embossed on a religious medal derived from an 1830 apparition to St. Catherine Laboure, a Daughter of Charity (a women's community founded by St. Vincent de Paul and St. Louise de Marillac) in a church at Rue de Bac in Paris. The popular devotion flourished among U.S. Catholics. Likewise, some revenue was generated by skilled and experienced Vincentian missionaries who drew up and sold popular home study guides.
The great artificer of a lasting Vincentian presence in the United States was American-born John L. Timon, who helped build a seminary, lay college, parish church, and local mission center—literally putting Saint Mary's on the map. However, the removal of St. Louis seminarians and the relocation of collegians, as well as Timon's departure to become bishop of Buffalo, put a temporary halt to the progress of the Vincentian mission.
The Barrens survived the Civil War and many different superiors but at some point, its fortunes ebbed as Vincentian formation and seminary studies shifted to Germantown, Penn. But in 1888, the Vincentians were split into two provinces and the Barrens was resuscitated as a place of formation (novitiate) and seminary training. A substantial building program ensued, transforming the area into a thriving seminary campus, college, parish, and retreat center. Various superiors upgraded the buildings, the library, the professional training of the faculty, and the esprit d'corps of the community. It enjoyed the generous benefactions of the renowned Catholic philanthropist, Carrie Estelle Doheny, who bestowed money, priceless works of art, and other artifacts for the rich archives once held by the Barrens.
The two school programs underwent considerable change due to internal Vincentian deliberations, that is, the creation of new provinces and the relocation of the novitiate. Likewise, currents of seminary reform afoot in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s and changes in priestly formation mandated by Vatican Two created a new set of challenges for the academic programs at the Barrens. The theology program was transferred to LeMont, Illinois. The college, at one time affiliated with De Paul University in Chicago, sought and secured free-standing accreditation. It remained as a college seminary until its closure in 1985. One of the best parts of this book is Janet's tribute to the important Vincentian scholars who have enriched the church with their writing. These include scripture scholar Bruce Vawter, C.M., historian Stafford Poole, C.M., and scripture scholar and historian, John Rybolt, C.M.
The book concludes with the problems of transitioning the old property, a task faced by many American dioceses and religious communities. Fortunately, the Vincentians built an attractive guest house on the property and were able to maintain some part of the vast acreage for use by the people of Perryville. The Missouri state college system at Cape Girardeau was able to use some of the buildings as a satellite campus. Precious archival and library materials were either sold or transferred to DePaul University.
This book is rich with detail, well-organized, and well written. It will certainly be a “must read” for all Vincentian novices. But just as important, it fills a needed gap in U.S. Catholic history, highlighting a religious community that had a significant impact on seminary education in America and the formation of the church in the United States.
