In December 1879 two new Novices joined the recently opened Novitiate at St Joseph’s in Hunters Hill: Br Basil Kelly from Aotearoa - New Zealand, born in Ireland in 1853 and already a competent teacher, and Br Frederick Smith born on the 18th of August 1862 in Dapto, NSW. He entered from the Juniorate at St Patrick’s, Harrington Street.
Br Frederick went on to lead a quite remarkable life which to some extent was unheralded even among his contemporaries. After profession he was assigned to the founding staff at St Josephs, Hunters Hill and became an excellent teacher, specialising in Maths and Science. As a Brother he was said to be “regular (i.e.. faithful to demands of his daily religious life), pious, studious and devoted.” Unusual for the era, Frederick was allowed to study Physics at Sydney University in 1890 by Br John, the Provincial; this permission was withdrawn the next year by the Superior General… not unusual for the era!
In 1889, while still at Hunters Hill, he founded the Museum which remained a feature at the College till 1944. It occupied half a floor of one wing and contained specimens across mineralogy, geology, zoology and anthropology (especially relating to New Guinea and the Pacific Islands). No mean feat, this extraordinary work.
While teaching at St Mary’s in 1894 he agreed to be one of two Australian Brothers to be sent to China. Within a week of accepting this assignment he had left Australia and the work he loved so much in his own land. He taught in China for the next 22 years mainly at St Francis Xavier College, Shanghai. (The first Marist Brothers in China had arrived from France in 1891; in 1893 they were invited to teach in St Francis’, a school founded by the Jesuits in 1874. In 1895, the Brothers took over full responsibility for St Francis’, Shanghai.)
Strangely, few of his Australian brothers heard what he had achieved in China. He worked there for 22 years and returned in broken health and close to death. He died in Lewisham Hospital, Sydney on the 6th of November, 1917 and was buried in the Field of Mars cemetery. His obituary notice in Cerise and Blue (1917) stated: “He was a most agreeable companion, always cheery, enjoying all species of humour. He was gentle, even yielding in his dealings with others. Those who were under him in his College days have very tender recollections of him…”
1905: The Brothers at Shanghai, China (author’s guess…Br Frederick front row, third from right)
Frederick’s story is remarkable to be sure: a young Australian boy gives his life to a fledgling outpost of a foreign religious Order; he uses his impressive intelligence and natural ability to teach in the service of young people, not only in his homeland, but in an unknown and ancient culture totally different to his own; he spends himself in working at his vocation, sparing nothing….and with it all he is simple, tender, joyful and deeply respectful of others. Why a model for today’s Marist? He loved his work and his way of life; he was willing to move beyond his comfort zone long before the term was invented; he was an international person available when a need presented itself; and above all he was an ordinary man who achieved above ordinary things through dedication, faith and love. We are told he was pious…which, translated, means he must have been a person of deep prayer in which he found the Lord and His mother to whom he had given his one wild and precious life. When he died he was only 55 years old.
See this YouTube video for a recent look at SFXC, Shanghai as it was in 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kmr7oTHDXM
Written by Br Michael Flanagan, FMS, SoTS Province Archivist
Pic courtesy - SoTS archives
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