Celebrating Scarboro Missions

Photo courtesy of the Archives of the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society

Today is the anniversary of the opening and blessing of the St. Francis Xavier China Mission Seminary in Scarborough, 1924.

This November, Scarboro Missions will celebrate its centenary.

This homegrown Roman Catholic mission society was founded by Msgr. John Mary Fraser. The son of Scottish immigrants, Fraser was born in Toronto in 1877 and studied for the priesthood at the Collegio Brignole Sale in Genoa, Italy. It was here that his vocation came into focus and he was ordained for mission work in 1901. In 1902, Fr. Fraser became the first North American missionary priest to work in China, where he was assigned to the Diocese of Ningbo.

Eight years later, Fr. Fraser returned to Canada and spent two years trying to raise interest in mission work in China. On November 9, 1918, Fr. Fraser received authorization to establish the China Mission College in the Archdiocese of Ottawa to train priests to accompany him overseas. The college building in Almont - a converted flourmill - was quickly outgrown by the increasing number of vocations.

In 1921, the college relocated to a temporary site in the Archdiocese of Toronto. In 1924, the staff and students moved into a new building on the Scarborough Bluffs, beside St. Augustine’s Seminary. Today is the anniversary of the opening of the St. Francis Xavier China Mission Seminary in Scarborough.

Photo courtesy of the Archives of the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society

A crowd gathers for China Mission Seminary Opening Day, ninety-four years ago today. Father John Mary Fraser can be seen in front of the main doors, presiding over the festivities.
The new edifice was built on property near the Scarborough Bluffs.

In 1940, with the approval of the Holy See, St. Francis Xavier China Mission Seminary was renamed the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society and its graduates Scarboro Foreign Mission Fathers (S.F.M).

Following the Communist Revolution in 1949, all Canadian missioners were arrested and eventually expelled from China. The Mission Society changed its focus to other countries in Asia, and Latin America. In 1950, Msgr. Fraser was invited to Japan, where he built churches and established schools in Nagasaki, Fukuoka and Osaka.

Back in Scarborough, the seminary continued to expand. The Mary Monaghan Wing was completed in September 1956. A new chapel and motherhouse were built between 1958 and 1959:

ARCAT, Photographs Special Collections, Religious Orders series, PH27S/46P

 Photograph of Msgr. John Fraser at the sod-turning ceremony for the seminary extension, 1958.

ARCAT, Photographs Special Collections, Religious Orders series, PH27S/47P

Msgr. Fraser, Fr. McQuaid, and construction superintendent Charles Giardelli discuss the building specifications for the chapel and extension.

ARCAT, Photographs Special Collections, Religious Orders series, PH27S/49P

St. Augustine's Seminary, for the training of diocesan priests, can be seen in the background, on the adjacent property.

ARCAT, Photographs Special Collections, Religious Orders series, PH27S/48P

Construction of the chapel (background) and motherhouse (foreground) on Kingston Road continues.

ARCAT, Photographs Special Collections, Religious Orders series, PH27S/52P

The new chapel and motherhouse are completed in the Spring of 1959.

Msgr. Fraser died in 1962 in Osaka and was buried there. Read more about Scarboro Mission's remarkable founder here.

The reforms of Vatican Council II emphasized the important role of the laity in the Church. Since 1974, single men and women, as well as married couples, have been invited to join with S.F.M. priests as global missioners. 

The organization is now called Scarboro Missions and defines itself as a society of Canadian Catholics, both priests and laity. Scarboro Missions is currently present in China, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, and Canada.

To celebrate their 100th anniversary, the Scarboro Missions Archives has produced an excellent five-part commemorative slideshow featuring archival photographs and records from their collections.

Studying the early 20th century way

As many students return to the classroom this week, we wanted to share what it looked like to hit the books in the early 20th century. The photos below were taken while their subjects were studying at St. Augustine's Seminary in Scarborough.

Fr. Kirby as a Student
PH 26S/73P
[1913-1916]

Gerald Joseph Ignatius Kirby was ordained in 1916 and became Monsignor Kirby in 1946. As a young priest he was Chancellor and Secretary to Archbishop Neil McNeil and Rector of St. Michael's Cathedral. He also served as a Diocesan Consultor, was the Spiritual Director at St. Augustine's Seminary, and Dean of the West Toronto Deanery; to name just a few of the offices he held.

Hugh Gallagher of Orillia
PH 26S/80P
[1917-1924]

Hugh Francis Gallagher was ordained in 1924 and likewise had a storied life as a priest in the Archdiocese of Toronto. Most notably, he served as Director of the Catholic Charity Bureau in Toronto from 1932 to 1946. This body later became Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Toronto.

You may be using an entirely different type of notebook, but we hope these priestly examples of good study habits inspire you to work hard.

ARCAT wishes all students young and old the best with their studies this year!

A Place of Rest and Quiet

On August 28, 1913, St. Augustine's Seminary was dedicated. We have posted many photos of the Seminary and its students in the past, and this week we are featuring the Seminary's chapel. Architect A.W. Holmes drew inspiration for St. Augustine's from Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, Italy. It is speculated that the chapel was inspired by another Florentine church, the Basilica of San Lorenzo.

From The People Cry: Send Us Priests: The First Seventy-Five Years of St. Augustine's Seminary of Toronto, 1913-1988, p. 24-26 by Rev. P.J. Carefoote:

"...Fittingly, the Chapel forms the 'heart' of the central Seminary building, intersecting it in the centre of its three hundred and fifty-six foot length. The Chapel is one hundred and four feet long and forty feet wide, accommodating a congregation of up to 220 people... The original sanctuary with its clean lines and very clear focus was a visual lesson on the Eucharist in itself. Its only decoration was the German stained-glass windows of such topics as "Sacrifice of Melchizedek," "The Crucifixion" and "The Last Supper" by Mayer and Company. The sanctuary depiction of the Incarnation, when the Word was made flesh, continues the ancient tradition in the Church of highlighting that space where the Word is made truly present again and again."

A hand-coloured black and white photo of a liturgical event in the Seminary chapel.

St. Augustine's Seminary Photograph Collection

[1913-1959]

A hand-coloured black and white photograph of the high altar.

St. Augustine's Seminary Photograph Collection

[1913-1959]

"The original suggestion made by Mayer and Company for the four rose windows was to portray the four great doctors of the Church. While this would certainly have harmonized with the heavenly patronage of Augustine, it would not have been faithful to the underlying decorative schema. Instead, the symbols of the four evangelists are rendered, again accenting the apostolic endeavor of this institution to preach the Word, thereby making Christ present in the world forever..."

St. Augustine's Seminary Photograph Collection

"A major renovation of the Chapel was directed in 1959 under the technical advice of Sir James Haffa, Architect. Retaining the steps and mensa of the original marble altar, the main altar and reredos were remodeled using a variety of shades and textures of polished marble... The marble statue of St. Augustine... was removed and the space filled in so that an Italian marble crucifix could be erected. Added to each side of the reredos were wooden statues of Saints Augustine and Monica."

A view of the organ loft.

"As the "house of God and gate of heaven" this chapel, then, is an overall success ...Of it can be sung ... "How lovely is thy dwelling place, O Lord of Hosts!" ... This holy place is a place of rejoicing, where God makes himself present in the word of his Apostles and prophets and in the Sacrament of the Altar. It is a place of rest and quiet where God is encountered in peace. It is a place where the Most High dwells among his children."

PH 26A/04CP
1982

"In 1964 the seating was altered from choir stalls to congregational arrangement, which is excellent for participation in the Eucharist and for private devotion, bit is not the happiest arrangement for the Divine Office. At this date, also, the marble altar was replaced by the present granite table, with the central, 'chi-rho' panel of the old high altar coming into new use as the altar of reservation. In general, however, the Chapel has a very prayerful mood about it, owing to its colour scheme and the chastity of its clean design and decoration."

For more on St. Augustine's Seminary, check their website.

Lettuce know if you'll turnip for the harvest!

It's pumpkin spice harvest time in Ontario!

It was not so long ago that parts of urban and suburban Toronto were used for agricultural purposes. When St. Augustine's Seminary opened in 1913 on the Scarborough Bluffs, the seminarians and faculty lived off the land:

"[T]he seminary grounds also included a farm with cows, pigs, and hens, which in the first three decades served as the principal source of the Seminary's food supply. An apple orchard stood north of the original Seminary building, and in the earliest years a vineyard was cultivated in order to provide Mass wine." *

St. Augustine's Seminary Photograph Collection, PH26S/83P

The orchard was located just north of the seminary building (ca.1920),
where Blessed Cardinal Newman Catholic High School now stands.

St. Augustine's Seminary Photograph Collection

The farm on the seminary grounds, including vineyards (right) for producing mass wine, ca. 1920.

St. Augustine's Seminary Photograph Collection

Loading the hay wagon on the seminary farm.

Celebrate the harvest season with a visit to St. Peter's Parish Fall Fair in Toronto this weekend (Saturday, October 3 - Sunday, October 4).


*Booth, Karen Marshall, ed. The people cry - "Send us priests": The first seventy-five years of St. Augustine's Seminary of Toronto, 1913-1988 (Toronto: Metro Press, 1988), vol. 1, p.11.

Even Priests Can't Resist a Little Competition

PanAmania has swept through Southern Ontario, with events in 48 sports happening from Simcoe County to the Niagara Region.

Catholics have long recognized the importance of sports. In a homily in 2000 Pope Saint John Paul II said:

"Playing sports has become very important today, since it can encourage young people to develop important values such as loyalty, perseverance, friendship, sharing and solidarity. Precisely for this reason, in recent years it has continued to grow even more as one of the characteristic phenomena of the modern era, almost a "sign of the times" capable of interpreting humanity's new needs and new expectations. Sports have spread to every corner of the world, transcending differences between cultures and nations.

"Because of the global dimensions this activity has assumed, those involved in sports throughout the world have a great responsibility. They are called to make sports an opportunity for meeting and dialogue, over and above every barrier of language, race or culture. Sports, in fact, can make an effective contribution to peaceful understanding between peoples and to establishing the new civilization of love."

We were able to find a few sports shots in the archives:

While not an Olympic sport, bowling has been a part of the Pan Am games since 1991. This year's competition will take place from July 22-25.

Monsignor Jean Marie Castex bowls as part of the league at St. Ann's Parish, Penetanguishene in the early 1960s.
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The champions of St. Ann's, Penetanguishene Bowling League show off their trophies [1949-1964].
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Racquetball has been in the Pan Am games since 1995 and events will be taking place from July 19-26. The Squash competition has already taken place, with Canada receiving two silver and two bronze medals.

Priests-in-training compete in some kind of racket sport at St. Augustine's Seminary.
St. Augustine's Seminary Photo Collection

The Canadian men's baseball team is doing well in preliminary rounds. The medal games will be played on Sunday, and the women's competition will start on Monday.

Seminarians playing baseball on St. Augustine's grounds.
St. Augustine's Seminary Photo Collection

St. Matthew's Boy's Baseball Team, 1959.
PH0087-12P

Field hockey games will be played throughout the two weeks of competition, but this is Canada, so it was easier for us to find pictures of ice hockey:

Students play hockey on the rink at St. Michael's College, 1917.
PH27B-12P

Good luck to all of the athletes competing in this year's events!

The Life of an Early Seminarian: Work Hard and Play Hard

In the mail we recently received an amazing gift: a collection of photographs belonging to longtime Toronto priest Monsignor James McCulley Clair. They had been in possession of his niece.

Monsignor Clair was born in Cayuga, Ontario. He attended St. Augustine's Seminary from 1915-1921. After he was ordained, he served as a diocesan priest. From 1925 - 1938 he served as Chancellor and Secretary to the Archbishop. From 1938 until his retirement he served as Dean of Barrie.

Included in Monsignor Clair's collection were albums containing photos of life as a seminarian. The photos reveal a heartwarming sense of camaraderie among the young priests-to-be. It is apparent that they are great friends during times of study, times of labour and during times of recreation. 

At the time, St. Augustine's was practically in the middle of nowhere. They farmed the land, and used the space for a variety of other activities. They also had access to Lake Ontario and the Scarborough Bluffs. They were able to spend a lot of time outdoors year round.  

Below are just a few of the photos in the collection. They capture the essence of the era, and elicit a certain nostalgia for a time when instead of being distracted by television, smartphones, computers, and video games, people interacted with each other. 

Presqu'isle - Preparing Breakfast

Playing cards.... I wonder what game? Is that allowed for seminarians?

Lunchtime in the Sugar Camp

The Rival Company & their camp

Hockey was as popular a pastime in the early part of the century as it is today.

Can you imagine a plane landing at the seminary now?

Ready to weigh anchor for Montreal.

Orchestra - St. Augustine's Seminary

Fancy a game of tennis?