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

Record of the Week: A Sappy Photo

March in Southern Ontario is maple syrup season. With warmer weather, starch that was stored in tree trunks over winter gets converted to sugary sap - perfect for making syrup.

This undated photograph shows seminarians trying their hand at collecting sap in jars.  Let's hope they found a lot of maple trees on the grounds of St. Augustine's Seminary; the conversion ratio of sap to syrup is approximately fifty to one.

Seminarians collecting sap, [191-]
St. Augustine's Seminary Photographs Collection
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Is there any better way to entertain children during March Break than feeding them sugar in the form of rich maple syrup poured over snow?

With no end of winter in sight, maple syrup celebrations have been extended this year.  In the archdiocese, you can visit the Sugarbush Maple Syrup Festival in Woodbridge or Stouffville until April 13th to get your maple fix.

Revisiting the St. Augustine's Seminary archives

Over the years ARCAT has provided advice about archives and records management to other repositories, including religious archives, partner agencies and institutions.  In 1990, our director, Marc Lerman, was asked to arrange and describe the archives at St. Augustine's Seminary in Scarborough.

The seminary was established in 1913 as the first major seminary constructed in English-speaking Canada for the training of diocesan priests. Lately, the seminary has been under scaffolding for maintenance and renovations.  It was recently decided to move the archives from basement storage to a renovated room on the main floor.

In preparation for the move, our consultation services were again solicited. There had definitely been some accumulation in 23 years! It's always fun to rummage through boxes.  You never know what you'll find...

The main storage room in the seminary basement.  The archives will soon be moved to a renovated room on the main floor. 

Getting organized: laying out all the framed items in the basement corridor. 

An awesome safe.  Unfortunately we could not find the key.

Spectacles with case.

Marc modelling the spectacles.

Mitre and case with clerical collars. Items belonged to Most. Rev. Leonard Wall.  He was an auxiliary bishop of Toronto (1979-1992), and then Archbishop of Winnipeg.  When he retired, Abp. Wall returned to Toronto to reside at the seminary, which explains why his things are stored here.  We found many boxes of textual material and artifacts belonging to Abp. Wall.

The seminary archives has a wonderful photographs collection and much of it has been transferred to ARCAT for preservation purposes.  Yesterday, we installed a display featuring photos from this collection to celebrate the St. Augustine's Seminary's 100th anniversary:

Lobby display case at the Catholic Pastoral Centre, Archdiocese of Toronto

A Look Back at a Scarborough Landmark: St. Augustine's Seminary

The past month has seen the beginning of a year's worth of events celebrating the centenary of St. Augustine's Seminary.

While looking at some of ARCAT's old photos of the Seminary building, I was reminded that our records show not only the history of the Archdiocese, but also the history of Toronto and the other communities of which we are a part.

Take for example the following aerial shots of St. Augustine's. They illustrate how the area along Kingston Road looked before post-war development of the Cliffside neighbourhood of Scarborough occurred:

In this 1940 photo, Kingston Road is running off to the north-east in the upper left hand corner. The top of the photo shows Lake Ontario and the vicinity of the present Cathedral Bluffs Park and Scarborough Bluffs Sailing Club. The layout of the roads behind the Seminary is visible. Today, these streets are lined with houses and mature trees.

In this photo from the same year, Kingston Road is visible along the bottom with Lake Ontario at the top. The white house in the foreground is at the corner of Kingston Road and Chine Drive. It still stands today, though the front is now covered with ivy. Three houses have been built between that house and the house just out of view on the far right. Chine Drive and Kelsonia Avenue, which is parallel to Kingston Road, are now lined with houses as well.

The same corner today as shown on Google Streetview.

In this expansive photo, Kingston Road is again visible across the top. Resthaven Memorial Gardens can be seen across Kingston Road from the St. Augustine's. R.H. King Academy, which was founded as Scarborough High School in 1922 can be seen in the distance near the top centre. 

This wintry scene looks out from St. Augustine's towards Chine Drive. Kelsonia Avenue and Glenridge Road (which was known as Ardmour at the time) can also be seen.

In 2013, nobody would consider the St. Augustine's area rural, but as shown on the following 1916 map, St. Augustine's was surrounded by farmland when it was first built:

View this map on the University of Toronto Map and Data Library Website

These photos remind us that our bustling, busy city with its streets full of cars and shops and people was once fields and trees. It's easy to imagine that when the site for the seminary was chosen, the pastoral setting would have been idyllic for reflection, contemplation and study in preparation for the priesthood. The view from the windows has changed dramatically, but the will to serve the Catholics of Toronto and abroad has remained the same.

To compare the above photos with today's Cliffside, you can use Google Satellite:

View Larger Map

For a look back on 100 years of St. Augustine's check out the special feature in the Catholic Register.

The Toronto Public Library has more historic photos of Cliffside, the neighbourhood that surrounds the Seminary.