HARRISVILLE — For more than 114 years, the Brothers of the Sacred Heart have ministered in the Diocese of Providence, where they have educated thousands of young men and women, and inspired countless others by their prayerful lives and Christian charity.
Today, the brothers staff Mount St. Charles Academy, Woonsocket, and serve in many other ministries throughout the diocese. They also minister in Africa, where they have worked for 70 years.
There are currently 70 brothers serving in the New England province, 50 of whom live and work in Rhode Island.
According to Sacred Heart Brother Leon Cyr, the devout brothers inspired 167 Rhode Island young men to pursue a vocation in the order, whose primary ministry is education. Large numbers of vocations came from Central Falls (57), Pawtucket (26) and Woonsocket (59).
Many other men taught by the brothers became Diocesan priests or joined other religious orders.
“The community was such a lively place,” recalled Brother Robert Breault, a Pawtucket native and former principal of Mount St. Charles Academy. Brother Breault also ministered in Africa as a missionary, and served the Brothers of the Sacred Heart in Rome and as the New England provincial.
“There was a strong sense of community and happiness,” he added, noting that as a young man, he often visited his older sibling, Brother Edward Breault, who preceded him in entering the religious order.
“I wanted to be a teacher and a missionary,” he said. “It fit like a hand in a glove. I’ve continued to enjoy community and I’ve continued to be happy.”
The respected religious order was founded in France in 1821, and 26 years later, a group of brothers was invited by Bishop Michael Porter of Mobile, Alabama, to establish a school in that Diocese.
During the second half of the 19th century, thousands of French Canadian families were forced by economic conditions to leave Quebec and settle in New England, where they found work in the region’s burgeoning textile industry in cities such as Woonsocket, Central Falls, Haverhill, Mass., Manchester, and Nashua, N.H., and Lewiston and Biddeford, Me.
These devout Catholic immigrants grouped together and started their own parishes and social organizations. Parochial schools opened in almost every parish, with the two-fold mission to preserve the Catholic faith and French language.
Pastors, many of whom had also immigrated from Canada, sought French-speaking religious orders to staff parish schools, while bishops invited many religious congregations to staff hospitals and orphanages. Between 1847 and 1900, more than 160 missionary brothers came to North America from France, and settled in Canada and the United States.
In 1898, the late Msgr. Charles Dauray, pastor of Precious Blood Church, Woonsocket, asked the religious congregation to send brothers from Canada to staff the parish school.
As more French-Canadian immigrants settled in the Blackstone Valley, the Sacred Heart brothers were invited in 1909 by the late Father J. H. Beland, pastor of Notre Dame Church, Central Falls, to teach at Sacred Heart Academy. The brothers staffed the parish boys’ school for 61 years, leaving in 1970.
In 1924, Mount St. Charles Academy opened as a Diocesan school, also staffed by the brothers. The religious order took ownership of the academy in 1937, and continue to staff the facility.
While the impressive school was once staffed by 35 brothers, today 20 members of the religious order minister there either as administrators or teachers, while several retired brothers volunteer as support staff.
“My greatest accomplishment was the education of youth,” remarked Brother Cyr, who taught religion at Mount St. Charles for six years, and now serves as archivist for the New England province.
One prominent figure in the academy’s history was the late Brother Adelard Beaudet, who died in 1990 at age 106.
“He was known as ‘the father of New England boys’ hockey,” remembered Brother Cyr, adding that the late brother, who served his religious community for 86 years, was instrumental in establishing Mount St. Charles’ outstanding hockey program, and also served as a baseball coach during his younger years.
For several decades, the brothers also operated a 1,500-acre dairy farm in Harrisville, the site of the former R.C. Hunter Farm, that supplied milk to Mount St. Charles Academy, as well as fruits and vegetables. A small part of that large tract of land now houses the provincial house and house of retirement.
“We have always been religious educators of youth,” said Brother Cyr, adding that while vocations in this country and Canada have experienced a decline in recent decades, the brothers’ Houses of Formation in Lesotho, Zambia and Zimbabwe are doing well.
“Vocations in Africa are flourishing,” he reported.
