Redemptorists return to the Mount
By Patrick Hayes, Ph.D. |
Thirteen Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province attended an open house at the Mount Academy, the most recent incarnation of Mount St. Alphonsus in Esopus, New York, on October 20.
A short program of hospitality, including a tour of the school and grounds by the Church Communities (Bruderhof) allowed confreres from as far as Saratoga and Baltimore to reminisce on their student and faculty experiences.
Before luncheon was served, the Vicar Provincial, Father Jerry Knapp, expressed his thanks to the Bruderhof on behalf of the Provincial, Father Paul Borowski, who was away at the Vice-Province of Richmond’s convocation.
The program included a welcome on the front steps of the Mount by members of the Bruderhof’s high school faculty. The tour included stops at the refurbished auditorium and theater, classrooms, faculty lounges, library, and chapel.
The Bruderhof noted that the railings in the library had all been raised to meet the current safety codes and welded in place rather than riveted, taking away nothing of the banisters’ former grandeur.
While walking through the library, Father Knapp explained to the two current librarians that one section of the library had been known as “Hell.” “That’s where all the books on the Index of Forbidden Books were kept, and you needed permission to enter and examine them,” he explained. “I never had need of going to Hell because I was so holy,” he said.
Among the most surprising elements of the tour was the Bruderhof’s retention of a Redemptorist footprint on the Mount Academy. Lining one of the main corridors is a series of framed photographs, blown up from digital images processed at the Baltimore Province Archives.
They show Redemptorist student life in its full glory—from harvesting grapes to the first blessings of the newly ordained. One photo shows Father Vernon Sattler on his ordination day, which caught the attention of his nephew, Father Henry Sattler.
Other aspects of the tour brought back memories, as when Father Jim Wallace explained that his room as a student once occupied a portion of the present history classroom.
The tour concluded with a visit to the old coal dock, which has been completely refurbished and extended off the river bank. A final remembrance of the confreres buried in the cemetery rounded out the afternoon.
Those attending: Fathers Charles and Gerry Brinkmann, Tom Deely, Frank Gargani, Artie Gildea, Gene Grohe, Jerry Knapp, Henry Sattler, Tom Siconolfi, Gerard Szymkowiak, Tom Travers, and Jim Wallace and Brother John Bosco. The province archivist, Patrick Hayes, also accompanied the confreres.