Br. Edward John

Michael Kerwin was born on May 1, 1834, at Wexford, Ireland, the son of Laurence and Catherine Murphy Kerwin. At age twelve, he and his family fled their famine stricken land and emigrated to St. Louis, Missouri. At age thirty-one he sought admission to the Brothers' Novitiate at Carondelet and entered in September of 1865 during the Civil War. He received the habit of the Brothers on December 8, 1865, and the religious name of Brother Edward John. Brother Edward John was immediately assigned to Christian Brothers College in St. Louis, Missouri. He was sent to St. John's School in Prairie du Chien but returned to CBC St. Louis in 1877 where he became a well known science teacher. Brother Edward John contracted T.B. and suffered greatly during the last four years of his life. He died at age fifty-nine, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for twenty-eight years.