History of the Congregation of St. Basil
Welcome (Language Selection) / Home (English) / Meet the Basilians /
)
The Basilian History in Colombia
The Basilian Biography (1822 - 1968)
The Basilian Fathers were established as a religious congregation in France in 1822. As a result of the closing of seminaries in France during the French Revolution, two diocesan priests opened a secret school in the mountains of central France. After several years of operation and after a change in French laws, ten priests serving there openly bound themselves into a religious community. They reasoned that the school, by then located in the nearby city of Annonay, would have a better chance of continuing if it were conducted by a Religious Congregation that could accept and train new members to continue the operation of the school after the founding fathers' retirement.
The original members chose St. Basil the Great, a fourth century teacher, bishop and doctor of the Church, to be the namesake of the new community. The Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Thomas Aquinas have also been our patrons. Since those early days of the congregation, St. John Bosco has been added to the list of patrons because of his admirable work with youth.
In the middle of the nineteenth century the French Basilians came to Canada on invitation of Bishop de Charbonnel of Toronto who had been a student at Annonay. They opened St. Michael's College in 1852, offering, in the French style, a combination of what we would call high-school and university education. Today, the University of St. Michael's College and St. Michael's College School continue the work begun in 1852. The Congregation grew in numbers and activities in the New World. Assumption College in Windsor, Ontario was opened as well as several parishes. Work in the United States began in a permanent way in 1886 at Ste. Anne's Parish in Detroit, Michigan and by the end of the nineteenth century the community was working also in Texas. From these beginnings the Basilians have spread across Canada, working today in the archdioceses of Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver and in the dioceses of Hamilton, London, Sault Ste. Marie, Saskatoon, Calgary and Nelson, and across the United States where we work in the archdioceses of Detroit and Santa Fe and in the dioceses of Rochester, Gary, Galveston-Houston, Las Cruces, Phoenix and Oakland.
)
In France, the Basilians were faced with the anti-clerical legislation of the first years of the twentieth century and had to give up all their schools. The difference in conditions of work between France and North America made coordination of the two parts of the community difficult. In 1922 the French Basilians petitioned the Holy See to divide the Congregation. From 1922 to 1954, the French and North American communities were separate. During that time the Community in France diminished in numbers while the North American Community flourished. In 1954 the two branches were reunited. Today, in France, the Basilians still work in the school in Annonay and in a parish in Lyons.
During the 1930's the Basilians in Texas began to work with the Mexican people who had settled in the countryside to the southwest of Houston. Gradually their small mission congregations developed into self-sustaining parishes. In 1961 two priests were sent to open a parish in Mexico City. Today we have a Parish and a House of Formation in Mexico City and two parishes in the city of Tehuacán as well as a large mission area of small parishes in the Cultapec area near Tehuacán. In 1987, the Latin American apostolate expanded to include a parish, school, and health care centre in Cali, Colombia. Basilians also minister to the Spanish-speaking communities in Detroit, Houston, Las Cruces and other cities in the United States.
