Br. Thurian

Birth Name
Paul Gelinas
Life
1841-1899
Day of remembrance
January
  
10

Brother Thurian entered Novitiate at the tender age of fourteen, after which he was assigned to the community at Lac-du-Deux-Montagnes [the Lake of the Two Mountains]. This community was in charge of the mission at Sulpicians in the middle of a "wild and uncivilized" tribe of Huron Indians. He was sent to teach in Detroit in 1860 and was assigned to St. Mary's of New Orleans in 1861. In 1864 was appointed Director of the Novitiate in New Orleans. The following year the District of New Orleans was established, and he remained in this capacity. In 1866, the Novitiate and District headquarters were both transferred to Pass Christian, Mississippi, where he remained as Director of Novices until 1868. After the college in Pass Christian fell into financial troubles, Brother Thurian was sent once again to St. Mary's in New Orleans as Director, during which time he continued to direct novices who joined the congregation. He left New Orleans in 1875 and was appointed Director of Novices in St. Louis where he served in this post for fourteen years. He was then assigned to Amawalk, New York, as Sub-Director of Novices and on to Ammendale, Maryland, where he served as Director of Novices until his death on January 10, 1899, at age fifty-seven in his forty-second year as a De La Salle Christian Brother.

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