Today's Marists V.6 Issue 1 FALL 2020

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Hybrid learning in Gina Parnaby’s first period class us. Never did I or any other senior expect to be sitting in their basement instead of in the front row of the student section with a headache from yelling and color powder inside their ear drums. What pains us is the fact that we never got to say goodbye. That part feels unfinished. However, I cannot do myself or others reading this the disservice of forgetting what has filled those empty bleachers - the community within those four walls is still alive and well – only now those four walls look a little different. Rather than in the bleachers Marist students watch the games from their home. Two hours every Friday night the entire Marist community finds themselves encapsulated by the same event. We are together apart - Marist instilled that in us. While miles away from our classmates, together we complain over a bad call by the referee, together we get up and dance at each touchdown scored and we sing the alma mater because we are a family. We celebrate each other’s wins, and we lean on each other during the losses. By watching those games together, the Marist community, while it may not be physically together, never walked away from each other. We never let the fear of the unknown stop us from still being that family that every student, teacher, staff, coach, parent and alum is a member. Right now we may feel unfinished and our futures feel unknown, but we choose to walk into it together (6 feet apart of course). We choose to embrace each other closely and walk out to the other side. Teaching Methods Have Changed – The Message Has Not For English Department Chair Gina Parnaby, when Marist School announced on March 13, 2020 (Friday the 13th – how appropriate!) that we’d be learning from home beginning the following week, we believed it would be a shortterm solution. As spring continued and COVID-19 cases kept rising, it was clear that “short-term” was now “long haul.” The long haul has now extended into the current school year, and masks, hybrid schooling (half the students in the classroom and half at home) and social distancing have become our new normal. Although the medium has changed, the message has not. In 1873, the Marists laid out the “threefold duty” of teachers to students: “to form them into strong and faithful disciples of Christ; to impart to them all solid virtues…; and finally, to teach them letters and the various sciences.” For the past 147 years, Marist education has held firm to these principles that continue to guide our work in the midst of crisis. Sr. Madeleva Wolff, C.S.C., shared with the women of Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana in 1943 that “…we know that you can be secure only when you can stand everything that can happen to you. If your school has prepared you for this, it has been a good school.” That sort of preparation comes grounded in faith and guarded by virtue. Our daily classroom routine has now added squirts of hand sanitizer to prayer, but the conversations remain the same as they have for generations of Marist students: What does it mean to be and do good? What is God calling me to do? How can I use my gifts to serve others? In the model of thinking, feeling and acting as Mary, students and faculty are focused on caring for one another and building up our caritas, that loving care for other people, in particular ways. Teachers are using a variety of technology tools not only to teach content but to build connection. Extracurricular activities like drama, marching band, robotics, debate and athletics are continuing, adopting innovative adaptations to accommodate the current situation. With the start of the new school year, for me, it’s a comfort to hear students laughing and chatting with one another again, and to walk past the plaques and memorials to Marist’s past. We’ve guided students through wars, pandemics and depressions, and will continue to do so under the protection and guidance of Mary, our mother. Her spirit is palpable in these halls. 20 Today’s Marists Magazine
Remembering the Marists and the 1873 Yellow Fever Epidemic by Susan J. Illis, Archivist, Archives of the Society of Mary, US Province In 1863 the Marists arrived in Louisiana to begin their mission service in the new land. While the languages, religion and culture were similar to what they had left in England and France, the missionaries encountered unfamiliar diseases, just as they did in Oceania. Primary among these was yellow fever, a mosquito-borne disease that caused deadly outbreaks in frequent intervals, preying mostly on newcomers. In 1873 vulnerable Marists experienced the “strangers’ disease,” as yellow fever was also known, and five Marists at Jefferson College in Convent, Louisiana died over a six-week period. Rev. Henri Gaud, SM, born in France in 1832, had been named president of Jefferson College in 1870 and was establishing his reputation as one of the most distinguished priests in the archdiocese. Although caring for sick colleagues was not one of his presidential responsibilities, it was a duty that he nonetheless selflessly undertook. Rev. Matthew McGrath, SM, prefect and professor, was the first to fall ill, followed by Brother Joseph Michard, SM, who died on September 15, 1873. McGrath died a few weeks later. After nursing his confreres for over a month, Gaud finally succumbed to the disease on October 8, 1873. Rev. Peter Freyssinet, SM, one of the original Marists at Jefferson College, also died a few weeks after Gaud. With a third of the faculty decimated by illness, the college reopened in early November with Rev. Jean-Baptiste Bigot, SM, as president. A few days after Gaud’s death, Papal bulls arrived from Rome, appointing him auxiliary archbishop of New Orleans. Had he not been a victim of the saffron scourge - a more fanciful appellation for yellow fever - Gaud would have been the first Marist bishop in the United States. Interestingly, in 1906 James Blenk, SM, became archbishop of New Orleans when his predecessor died during a second yellow fever epidemic in the area. Although all the Marist losses were keenly felt, Rev. Gaud was especially mourned: For forty days the good Father had been on his feet continually, he had valiantly fought against the epidemic. His attainments, his theological knowledge, his generous character, and his deep piety had made Father Gaud a man of eminence. At the time of his passing, the Bulls were on the way from Rome, preconizing him as the Coadjutor to the Archbishop of New Orleans. His passing was a matter of public mourning. In 1878, a second more severe outbreak of yellow fever ravaged the Mississippi Valley, claiming 20,000 lives. The Marists were spared fatalities early in the outbreak, with one contemporary commenting, “Heaven was satisfied with the tribute it had paid in 1873, when five of its members fell victims to the same fearful scourge.” Rev. John Muncaster, SM, had just completed one academic year of his first assignment at Jefferson College, where he was adored by faculty and students alike. Only 27 years old, he believed his youth and vitality would protect him from the disease. Fr. Muncaster spent the summer filling in not only at St. Michael’s, the Marist parish in Convent, Louisiana, but also assisted at other churches left unstaffed due to the outbreak and also attended to the spiritual needs of those stricken with the disease. Despite dire warnings from those familiar with yellow fever, Muncaster continued at a frenetic pace all summer. Fr. Muncaster was called back to Jefferson College from his ministrations in Bayou Lafourche, an area in southeastern Louisiana that had been hard hit by yellow fever. Unfortunately, he had already contracted yellow fever and died in Donaldsonville, Louisiana on October 30, 1878 where he was initially buried. Rev. John Grimes, SM, recounted that in December 1878, when the Marists went to retrieve Fr. Muncaster’s remains for interment in Convent, Louisiana, they discovered that despite the unusually harsh winter weather, a small white lily was growing out of his grave. Although all the surrounding trees and plants were dead, the white flower — symbolizing purity and resurrection — survived on the young Marist’s grave. To learn more about the Marists history during multiple disease outbreaks, we invite you to view the online exhibit “United in One Mind and One Heart: The Society of Mary and Epidemics” at: https://bit.ly/3nV09F8 Aerial view of Jefferson College, Convent, Louisiana, early 1900s Fall 2020 21
Page 1 and 2: Today’s Fall 2020 Volume 6 | Issu
Page 3 and 4: from the Provincial Fr. Paul Freche
Page 5 and 6: of the virus outbreaks lessen. Pope
Page 7 and 8: Top: Proud fathers with newly bapti
Page 9 and 10: News Brief Marist Laity Framework b
Page 11 and 12: Father Augusto Zampini-Davies, the
Page 13 and 14: “So many people keep asking when
Page 15 and 16: Farm tunnel model replicated at TRT
Page 17 and 18: Notre Dame Preparatory and Marist A
Page 19: appreciate the small things in life
Page 23 and 24: Teaching Adult Faith Formation Onli
Page 25 and 26: THE PANDEMIC, continued from page 2
Page 27 and 28: Supporting the Marists by Denise D

Today's Marists V.6 Issue 1 FALL 2020

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