Students celebrate Bicentenary

The Marists in Ireland celebrated the Bicentenary of the Foundation of the Institute on March 11 at St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Ireland, during which young Marist students stressed the importance in leadership training. 

Participants included the provincial superior of West Central Europe, Brother Brendan Geary, Brother Tony Leon of the Brothers Today Secretariat and Brother David Hall, from Australia.

Brothers David and Tony visited the three Irish Marist secondary schools before and after the celebration to work with staff and young Marist leaders. 

Representatives from the three schools, and people associated with the Institute also attended including Christoph Müller, director of the Maristen Gymnasium in Furth, Germany, with his wife, and Josef Maier, director of the Maristenrealschule in Cham, Germany.

Other participants were Stefan Schulze Beiering, deputy director of the Maristenrealschule in Recklinghausen, Germany; Bernadette Jones, head teacher of St. Joseph’s College, Dumfries, Scotland, and her husband, Kevin, who teaches history at the school. 

After Brother P.J. McGowan’s welcome, six young Marist leaders from the three schools shared how they understood and implemented Marist values in their lives. 

The West Central Europe province affirmed the youths “spoke eloquently about their experience of leadership and how their training in leadership had helped them personally and in the roles they undertook in the schools.”

After Br David’s presentation on education and Marist values, Father Martin McAnaney, provincial of the European Province of the Marist Fathers, presided a Mass, which was animated by a joint choir of students from the three schools.