St. John’s dedicates new exhibit to the Christian Brothers

On Oct. 4, the St. John’s community dedicated a display outside the Mission and Ministry Center to the Christian Brothers that have worked at the school as part of this year’s celebration of the 300th anniversary of St. John Baptist de La Salle’s entry into eternal life.

The idea for the wall came from Mr. Sipowicz, SJC director of mission integration. He said, “I noticed there was nothing dedicated to the work of the Brothers anywhere, which makes sense because of the humility they’ve always had. But in the almost 107 years that they’ve been here, there’s been 545 Brothers that have worked here. So we decided that it was only right to do something.”

During the spring of 2018, the De La Salle Scholars in the Class of 2019 helped Bro. Mark research the Brothers that have worked at St. John’s. Together, they wrote biographies on those Brothers that are now available on a touchscreen next to the display. Bro. Mark also interviewed those Brothers that are still living and worked with the St. John’s archives to learn more about those who have passed. He even made a trip up to the Christian Brothers Archives in Philadelphia over the summer to do research.

The wall was blessed by Msgr. John Enzler ’65. Many in the St. John’s community also contributed to this project, including our St. John’s archivist, Ms. Baker; archivist for the Baltimore District, Bro. Joe Grabentein; Mr. Layton, Computer Science Department chair; Mr. Colvin, director of technology; the Communications Office; and President Mancabelli.

Last week was also Vocations Awareness Week. While there were no particular events for students during the week, St. John’s employees took part in a celebration of La Salle on Friday with the southern tier of the District of Eastern North America. This entire year is also a celebration of La Salle’s 300th anniversary, beginning with the installation of the display on Lasallian schools around the world in the Kimsey hallway last year and ending with dedication of the Brothers Wall. 

Bro. Mark said, “It’s important to kind of have a sense of the history of Lasallian education – what it has been and what it currently is. Knowing what the past was in order to understand where we currently are is really very important.”