Br. John Joseph

John  McMahon was born on June 6, 1874, in Escanaba.  His parents moved to St. Paul, Minnesota,  where he attended the Brothers' school and from where he entered the  Novitiate at Glencoe on December 27, 1889.   There he received the habit and the religious name of Brother John  Joseph.  His first teaching assignment  was at St. Patrick's in Chicago, Illinois, in 1891 where he remained for ten  years as well as from 1931-32.  His  tour of duty also includes, Christian Brothers College in St. Louis,  Missouri, 1901-03 and 1907-08; De La Salle High School in Chicago, 1903-05;  Christian Brothers College in St. Joseph, Missouri, 1905-06 and 1908-09.  He served as Director in Duluth, Minnesota;  Kansas City, Missouri; Memphis, Tennessee; Winona, Minnesota; St. Paul,  Minnesota; Minneapolis, Minnesota and Evanston, Illinois.  During his lifetime he wrote textbooks on  religious teaching and gave courses in catechetics at Manhattan College, St.  Mary's College of California and at DePaul University in Chicago.  His sponsorship by the Catholic Hierarchy  involved him as one of the founding fathers of the Confraternity of Christian  Doctrine.  Brother John Joseph did not  live to see his work develop into the Living with Christ series of Religion texts.   He was justly known as "The  Catechist."   He died at age sixty-eight, having been a De la Salle Christian  Brother for fifty-four years.