Br. Charles of Mary

Anton Ficke was born in Freilsburg, Texas, the son of Anton and Caroline Schneider Ficke, on February 2, 1854. He was the first of three of the Ficke boys to enter the Christian Brothers. Anton, a boarder at the school in Pass Christian was admitted at Carondelet in June of 1867 and received the habit and religious name of Brother Charles of Mary. His first teaching assignment took him to St. Mary's and St. John's in New Orleans, Louisiana. In August of 1874 he was sent to Annunciation School in St. Louis, Missouri. He was the first of three victims of smallpox of that community. He died at age twenty, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for seven years.