Br. Alarinus of Mary

Joseph Raher Powers was born on June 15, 1847, in Donhill, Ireland, the son of Lawrence and Mary Raher Powers. The family emigrated to the United States and at age nineteen, Joseph entered the Novitiate at Carondelet, Missouri, on December 27, 1866. In March of 1867 he received the habit and the religious name of Brother Alarinus of Mary. He was assigned to teach elementary classes in St. Louis and in St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1867, and remained in St. Joe until 1870. He taught at St. Mary's and St. John's in Chicago in 1870-71 but was sent to New Orleans, St. Mary's Academy where he taught there until 1875 when he withdrew from the Brothers. He reentered the Order in the New York District Novitiate in 1879 and joined the newly formed Baltimore District. In 1889 he injured himself and had to retire to Ammendale where he died at age sixty-five, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for forty-two years.