Br. Laurian

Joseph O'Neill was born in Gibstown, County Wicklow, Ireland, on August 6, 1860, the son of Andrew and Mary Fitzpatrick O'Neill. The family emigrated to the United States. Joseph and his brother, Peter, sought admission to the Institute and both of them entered the Novitiate at Carondelet on May 19, 1880. Three months later on August 15, 1881, they received the habit of the Brothers and the religious name of Brother Laurian (Joseph O'Neill) and Brother Leander Patrick (Peter O'Neill). Brother Laurian's first assignment was to St. Bridget's in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1881, and again in 1893. In 1885, and again in 1903, he taught at CBC in St. Joseph, Missouri, and in 1889 at the College in St. Louis, where he also taught in 1903 and 1907-9. Brother Laurian was assigned to: De La Salle High School in Chicago four different times, in 1891-1893, 1895-1897, 1905-1907, and 1915-1916; St. Bridget's in St. Louis in 1893; four times at Cretin High School in St. Paul in 1893-95, 1900-01, 1909-15 and 1916-18. He taught in Memphis in 1894 and again in 1901 and at De La Salle Academy in 1918-1922. He retired to the Community of Ancients in Glencoe in 1922 where he "often disobeyed the rules by talking with the novices and junior novices, whom he dearly loved." He died at age seventy-two, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for fifty-two years.