Br. Constantius of Mary

Matthias Graham was born on January 10, 1851 in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Nicholas and Barbara Reiche Graham. From St. Joseph School in St. Louis he sought admission to the Novitiate at Carondelet, receiving the habit of the Brothers and the religious name of Brother Constantius of Mary on January 3, 1867, thus becoming one of the first novices of the St. Louis District. In 1872 he was sent to teach at St. Peter's School in New York and in 1878 to Baltimore as the first Director of Novices of the Baltimore District. The following year he was a professor of literature at Manhattan College and from 1886 to 1888 he taught at Rock Hill College in Ellicott City, Maryland. From 1889-1893 he was principal of Christian Brothers Academy in Albany, New York, and he taught at La Salle College in Philadelphia. He returned to the midwest in 1893 to teach at Christian Brothers College in St. Louis and in Memphis until 1907 when he was assigned to Glencoe as secretary to the Brother Visitor. In 1908 he was again working at CBC in St. Louis and in 1911 at CBC in Memphis. From 1913 to 1915 at St. Mary's College in California, and in 1915 he returned to Ellicott City at Rock Hill College. Brother Constantius of Mary was assigned to Kansas City in 1920, in Memphis in 1922 and returned to Kansas City in 1923 where he remained until his death in 1930. He attended Catholic University, the University of Chicago and universities in France and England. He held and L.L.D. degree from the University of Notre Dame and a Ph.D. from St. Louis University and was author of a book entitled: The Young Christian Teacher Encouraged. A French Scholar of note, it was Brother Constantius who translated the "Manual of Piety" as it exists today. He also wrote a series of Readers for the English Schools of Canada; a translation in collaboration with Brother Azarias of Management of the Christian School and The Twelve Virtues of a Good Master; a translation and revision of The Life of John Baptist de la Salle; contributed to "Catholic World"; the "American Catholic Quarterly Review" (under the name of M.M. Graham); "Western Watchman"; "Church Progress"; "Catholic Education Bulletin"; and "Educational Review". While in Kansas City in his last assignment, and after World War I, Marshal Foch toured the United States and Brother Constantius was chosen as his official interpreter. He died at age seventy-nine, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for sixty-three years.