Br. Fidelis Germanus

Michael Schmitt was born on October 18, 1836, in Ludenback, Prussia, the son of Hohna M. and Mary Barbara Kailback Schmitt. Michael's family emigrated to the United States, first settling in Louisville, Kentucky, and eventually to Illinois where he learned the shoe making trade. During the Civil War he was a part of the Illinois volunteer regiment which engaged in active campaigns under Ulysses S. Grant. By chance he read an article about Christian Brothers College in St. Louis and the work of the Brothers and he immediately wrote for admission to the order. At age thirty-three he entered the Novitiate at Carondelet on January 25, 1869. He received the habit of the Brothers and the religious name of Brother Fidelis Germanus. He taught classes for several years in Baltimore and at the orphanage at Troy, New York. In 1873 he became the "shoemaker" for the Brothers' Houses of Formation. He died in 1932 at age ninety-six, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for sixty-three years.