The Friars' Schoolhouse
June 23, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 175 Father E. J. Flanagan in exposing what looks like a had put the son of the king...
...Pedro de Gante was closely rethe home-run king has been touched...
...The name of the former splendor...
...Twice he was forced to flee be- ficiency in reading, writing, drawing, instrumental cause he had drawn the sword against a usurper who music, especially the flute, and singing...
...A world that, on the reached his twenty-third birthday...
...That they met with a regal welcome is plain patronymics was arranged to suit male or female refrom the ruins of the fine buildings and palaces that cipient...
...parchment slip on which their new names were written The Hungry Coyote is almost a legendary figure lest they forget them...
...The three much...
...It was a peaceful reign, too, because he was our brawling cities...
...Thus our attention is directed to an his- 400 more-in a large building consisting of classtorical fact worthy of serious reflection at this time...
...the Reverend William S. Saint Francis, the eagle of the last Aztec emperor, Murphy's direction of the twelfth-century Adoro Te and the vases from the Tuileries which Napoleon III Devote...
...Orchestra...
...The great thing Charles V, and only over the royal protest did he find is that the heart which beats inside the big frame of his way to America...
...of which was carried piece by piece from Mexico...
...But when our athletic giants condescend to pioneer missionaries were eminent men-Juan de literature, ways and means exist of ensuring that the Tecto, leader of the party, had been confessor to result shall be eminently readable...
...the Faith into a native hymn which the Mexicans Today Texcoco is an insignificant town of 5,000, learned easily and hummed almost unintermittently...
...Dickens from Mr...
...sleeping a lazy sleep in the warm sunshine on He wrote that he and another monk baptized as many the banks of a blue-green lake and dreaming of its as io,ooo persons in a single day...
...I out of the question since the friar would have had to am all for the boys and will help you in this cause," embark for the new world before the emperor had he writes Father Flanagan...
...After having tasted the bitter bread we are more or less resigned by now to regard as de- of exile, he seized the throne and reigned for fifty positaries of the virtues which have been driven from years...
...In the days of the Aztecs it was saint of the day was usually imposed upon the children the capital to which the chiefs hurried on matters of in Baptism, and if necessary the gender of these state...
...Neither could they fashion the beauty guardians when the rush is over, with no other re- of the heavens, the sun, the moon, and the stars nor muneration for their labor than an object lesson in yet the earth and plants...
...of the Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia Altogether, the Catholic Choirs' Festival was highly was given on Wednesday, June 9, and the program creditable to the great claims that have been made was one of extraordinary musical merit, worthy of for our traditional composers as well as the high the high aims of the Catholic Choirs Society, and of esteem in which our choirs and singing societies are the great reputation of the City of Brotherly Love for held, an esteem which should grow and become more its musical standards and attainments...
...Wackford Squeers, as soon He alone can console me in my affliction or still the bitas one of his little charges had learned to spell ter anguish of my heart...
...Masterly renditions THE first choral concert to open the auditorium were given on the splendid organ newly installed...
...The other deserts, is expecting a homer for the homeless...
...In the textile arts ferent groups in the music world of the city, embracthey soon excelled...
...But the able acoustical properties, and but one word can be missions in Texas never thrived long or lustily, be- said of the audience, several thousand people indeed, cause the Comanche and Apache Indians did not bow but entirely inadequate to the splendid musical feast, their necks readily to the yoke of the Gospel nor keep or to the pretensions and ambitions of our very fine them there docilely when once they had submitted...
...past, the Doctor is dreaming a dream of founding in The Ave Maria by Tomas de Victoria and Caesar San Antonio a hospital similar to the one he built in Franck's Panis Angelicus with the solo by the fine Mexico, the best equipped of its kind in the land...
...one is familiar with the Alamo in San Antonio...
...San The vast auditorium, capable of seating some ten Jose, the "Pearl of the Missions," so called on account thousand people, proved to be a hall of most remarkof its superb carvings, was next founded...
...These were housed-with room for surgeon...
...Fray Gante translated the fundamentals of was founded by the Franciscans in Texcoco, Mexico...
...The Indians showed great proin Mexican history...
...He succeeded very dark and very mean story of exploitation on the in making his escape through a secret door under a part of the farming element of this country, whom cloud of incense...
...Surrounded by records of the of Palestrina under the leadership of Albert J. Dooner...
...To expect the pen of Mexico was accompanied by the Franciscans who arMr...
...Cortez befriended him in his apostolic works, comON June 6, San Antonio, Texas, witnessed the manding that the white settlers send their children to unveiling of a tablet on the Aztec gate to the the friar's school...
...THE FRIARS' SCHOOLHOUSE That left Fray Gante alone in Mexico...
...We feel sure that some cantata or oratorio Dr...
...But it took much urging on the i,ooo voices representing the Catholic Girls' High the part of the Spaniards to teach the Indians the School, the Polish and Ruthenian groups, Saint mechanical arts, for the Mexican rebelled against the Peter's Choral Society, the Cathedral Choir, Saint seven years of apprenticeship that was insisted upon...
...In Particularly calling for praise were Miss Nora his palace there are such precious treasures as Maxi- Burk's direction of Niedermeyer's Pater Noster, and milian's crucifix, Zurbaran's magnificent painting of Edgar's Fly Singing Bird...
...The in art and music, there is a lack of sincere appreciaentrance to the villa, which is a vast one-story building tion and patronage on the part of our musical public, in stone modeled on the Califs' Palace of Cordova, is Catholic or non-Catholic-but be it here noted that an Aztec construction of enormous size, each stone this reproach is for the Catholics in particular...
...winder," used to send him out to clean one ; and The Spanish Conquistadores always brought priests, it is a little startling to see the methods of Dotheboys generally mendicant friars, with them in their marches Hall revived in our twentieth century and in the free in the new world...
...Aureliano Urrutia, a devout Catholic, welcomed and almost compelled to take their places a member of the Mexican Cabinet in the days of Diaz, on the rude benches...
...It of the liturgical and secular, our lofty assumptions overlooks a small lake filled with water lilies...
...Francis de Sales Choir, Church of Our Mother of From Texcoco a foundation was made in 169o in Sorrows Choir, and Saint Patrick's Choir, were of East Texas by the Franciscans...
...rooms, a dormitory, and a refectory...
...Urrutia brought to his palatial home in San of purely secular organizations would have crowded Antonio as much of Mexico as he could conveniently this auditorium and not left the impression that, in deport...
...The first instrucThe tablet bears witness to the fact that on June tion consisted of simple prayers and the rudiments of 6, 1526, the first parochial school in North America religion...
...Having Aztec blood in his own veins he saw spite of all the pretensions of our students, our critics fit to carry from Mexico the Aztec God of Death...
...It is more likely whole, likes to see meanness and oppression meet its that he was a brother of the sovereign...
...member of the party, Aora, is believed to have perished with Tecto on the Honduras expedition in 1525...
...The popular names which the white children still remain, especially those dating from the reign of were free to select were John and Mary, Peter and Nezahualcoyotl, which means in our language "the Catherine...
...The children of the slaves were residence of Dr...
...Many of their 176 THE COMMONWEAL June 23, 1926 drawings were admired in Spain...
...musicians...
...Six years after its foundation holder of the portfolios of the Interior and Foreign Gante wrote that he had from 5oo to 6oo children Affairs under Huerta, and internationally known as a under his charge...
...They learned the art of building ing the Palestrina Choir under the special direction by close observation of the Spaniards, who in that age of Nicola A. Montani, the Philadelphia Orchestra, were great constructors...
...rance...
...voice of John Ambrogi were unforgettable features The four-hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the Reverend William B. Kane's choir...
...The of the first parochial school on this continent deserved Ruthenian Choir rendered several very interesting to be commemorated because it will give the lie once numbers from the Byzantine Rite, followed by a for all to those who maintain that the Spanish mis- superb rendition of Caesar Franck's Psalm 15o, consionaries insisted upon keeping the natives in igno- ducted by Leopold Sync...
...Every- to rival in any other city of our nation...
...June 23, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 175 Father E. J. Flanagan in exposing what looks like a had put the son of the king to death...
...Some powerful, hidden, and the relation of work to wages that will probably last unknown God must be the creator of the universe and them all their lives...
...and the exquisite rendering of 0 Bone Jesu gave to Maximilian...
...According to Father Flanagan's an ardent believer in the unknown God in whose honor statement, it has become the gentle practice of cer- he composed the following prayer which does honor tain among this deserving class to solve their labor to his intelligence and his religious sense: "Surely the problem by "adopting" homeless boys during rush gods which I adore, idols of stone and wood, speak seasons and returning them to the care of their former not nor feel...
...It will also serve to give us the measure of The great feature of the evening was Nicola Monthose Mexican governmental officials who are trying tani's presentation of his composition, the Missa today to snatch from the hearts of a Catholic people Festiva, in six parts-a rich, harmonious development the priceless advantages made possible by the mis- of the best of the old and new in church music, rensionaries of long ago, who labored so ardently and dered with great effect by the Palestrina Choir, the magnificently to win this people to Christ and hold it Choir of Saint Peter's Church, and the Philadelphia to Him by sound Catholic education...
...The Polish Choir rendered several scenes from the operas, Halka Flix and Verbum Nobile, under the SESQUICENTENNIAL MUSIC able director, Walter Grigaitis...
...It was a fitting climax to the occasion...
...Cortez swooping down upon air of the great open spaces...
...After Baptism the children were given a Hungry Coyote...
...Ruth would be asking too rived in Vera Cruz in August, 1522...
...and more important with the increasing prominence Program, rendition, and representation of the old we are taking in national and municipal functions and and new church compositions, as well as of the dif- the cultural fields of our nation...
...Practically the same an excellence and brilliance that it would be impossible regime in force at Texcoco was observed here...
...He remembers lated to the emperor, one historian going so far as to he began life himself as one of the disinherited of maintain that he was a son of Charles V. This is the earth, and he is coming to their assistance...
Vol. 4 • June 1926 • No. 7
