The Xaverian Brothers, a small international congregation of vowed laymen was
founded by Theodore James Ryken who was born August 30, 1797 in the little
village of Elshout, North Brabant, Holland, of middle class parents whose ardent
Catholicity is the only thing that is known of them. Left and orphan by the
early death of both his father and mother. He was reared by a saintly uncle who
stamped deeply upon the boy's character those qualities of faith, zeal for souls
and devotion to duty that were prominently associated with his later life.
As a young man, Mr. Ryken, although trained as a shoemaker, felt himself
called to devote his life to the Christian education of youth, while having
no inclination towards the priesthood. Whether at this time he thought of
founding a congregation of teaching Brothers is doubtful, but we know that he
gave himself generously to works of zeal---at one time as a catechist, then
in helping to conduct an orphanage, and again in caring for cholera patients
in North Holland.
At the age of thirty-four, he went to American to offer his services as a
catechist among the missionaries of the Native Americans. It was during the
three years he spent in America that he conceived the idea of starting a
congregation of brothers to work alongside the missionary priests. With this
dream in mind, he went back to Europe and drew up a plan to establish such a
brotherhood in Belgium---a country eminent of missionary zeal.
On his second trip to America in 1837, however, Ryken observed that the city
youth, noticeably the children of immigrants, were even more in need of
instruction than Native Americans and he changed his original intentions.
Bishop Rosati of St. Louis encouraged him to found a religious order of laymen
whose members would labor among all classes of American youth. Six other
bishops sanctioned his plan to bring religious brothers to the United States.
Continue to next page for more information on the Xaverian Brothers.