Let’s take a look back and see what was happening at Maryknoll in June of 1925 with an excerpt from the article “June Knoll Days” out of the June 1925 issue of The Field Afar:
“‘What is so rare as a day in June?’ asked the poet, and our scribe answered — ‘a June day at Maryknoll.’ These are blessed and happy days here on Mary’s hilltop, and we would gladly share them with all our friends. Our grounds have been favored with a natural growth of shrubbery that blossoms at this time and beautifies our gardens as only God’s handicraft can.
In such a setting and atmosphere, the procession on the feast of Corpus Christi winds its way. The Solemn Vesper service in the temporary chapel at the Seminary precedes the march across fields and gardens to the lawn near the pro-Seminary. The long line of priests, students, Brothers, and Sisters, with the lay-visitors who happen in on that day, winds down through the roads, and, after Benediction on the lawn, moves on to the Sisters’ chapel for a second blessing, and then back to the Seminary. Maryknollers everywhere recall the day with much joy, counting it as one of their happiest memories, and our missioners hope for other days when they can repeat the same beautiful ceremony in China and Korea.
The first of June marks also the first Mass of our fourteen newly-ordained priests. The ceremony of ordination took place in the Seminary chapel on Pentecost Sunday, in the presence of the young priests. His Eminence Cardinal Hayes conferred the holy orders, and it was a special joy for all to have the Cardinal for this ceremony — his first at Maryknoll. Besides the fourteen priests, there were also ordained eight to the subdiaconate and twenty-four to minor order. Of the priests ordained, many will go to the missions directly; others will be assigned to duty in some of the Maryknoll houses in this country. For all on whom orders have been conferred, we ask the prayers of our readers, and you may be assured that our young levites will not be unmindful of you, their benefactors, when they ascend to the altar. With the ordination of this group, Maryknoll now counts eighty-two priests.
‘Eighty-two! You’re surely growing!’ Yes we are; growing loder, and with years [.] This year, and this month we celebrate a birthday. Fourteen years ago the Maryknoll Superior and the late Father Price, encouraged by the hierarchy of this country, received from the saintly Pope Pius X, a blessing with authorization to establish the national foreign mission Seminary of America. From the few who then applied for admission and from the humble surroundings in which they were housed, we have grown to a family reaching well toward the five hundred mark and we are on the way to seeing our Seminary nearly half completed.”
