The Foundation of the Order of Servants of Mary in the United States of America (1870-1883) by Austin Morini, O.S.M.

Abstract

The Foundation of the Order of Servants of Mary in the United States of America (1870-1883). By Austin Morini, O.S.M. English Translation and Notes by Conrad M. Borntrager, O.S.M. Italian Text edited by Odir Jacques Dias. XIX. (Rome: Edizioni Marianum. 1993. Pp. 260. $16.00 paperback.) One of the most encouraging trends in religious life after Vatican Council II has been the commitment of resources and trained personnel to the writing of scholarly histories of religious community. Although these studies are of uneven quality, the best of them offer a wealth of detail about the practicalities of establishing Catholic religious life and its associated apostolic works in the United States. An especially important function of these works is to provide case studies for the adaptation of European models of religious life to the exigencies of the United States. Following the waves of immigrants that flooded American shores in the nineteenth century, the priests, brothers, and sisters who came from Europe to minister to their spiritual and temporal needs had not only to adapt personally to their new surroundings, but also the structures and disciplines of their common life had to be altered as well. This often happened with much misunderstanding on both sides of the Atlantic, and not a few departures from the religious life. Although the Order of the Servants of Mary (Servites) has not yet come to the point of a full-blown, scholarly account of its development and expansion in the United States, it is clear in the volume under review that it possesses the resources necessary to do so. Father Conrad Borntrager's excellent translation of the account of the founding father of the Servites in the United States, Austin (Agostino) Morini, will certainly serve as the backbone of any future account of Servite life in America. The Servites were founded in 1226 and headquartered in Florence. They entered the English-speaking world first in England, and later joined the rush of Italian immigrants to the United States. Austin Morini, the head of the first Servite contingent In the United States, was born in 1826 In Florence. He entered the Servite Order and was ordained in 1850. A highly literate man, he taught literature and moral theology and carried on a lively correspondence with some of the important literary figures in Italy. In 1864 he was dispatched to England, and in 1870 the community sent him to the United States. He remained in America until 1888, founding Servite parishes in Menasha, Wisconsin, and Chicago. In 1888 he was recalled to work in Italy and in 1907, at the insistence of Prior General Pellegrino Stagni, he penned 126 pages of a memoir of his years in the United States. This document was brought to the United States by Father Leo Ryska, formerly a Servite, who entertained notions of writing a history of the older in America. When that became impossible, the document was photocopied and, thanks to Borntrager, carefully annotated and presented in its present form under the series Scrinium Historiale, sponsored by the Order. …