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A TIME TO PRAY
1936 - 1946
Fr. Valentine Goetz, OMI, was Superior and Fr. Kievel, OMI, was Prefect of Discipline. Missionaries continued to pass through to renew old acquaintances with staff and to share with the seminarians. The rooms of former red school building were connected into a study hall, dormitories, and recreation rooms for the students of the college department, and the building was renamed St. Mary's Hall. These prewar days were good days when everything seemed to be falling in place.
It was at St. Henry's that in 1936 the Oblate Central Province, then known as the Province of St. Henry, established an auxiliary support group which in time would have a profound effect on the whole Oblate Province. In the words of the Oblate Superior General, "The League of Mary Immaculate (later called the Missionary Association of Mary Immaculate) is an army of lay-people lined up about us on the great battlefield of the missions where we are striving to carry aloft the banner of Christian faith and charity." To help organize the League, Fr. Alphonse Simon, OMI, superior of the seminary, appointed Fr. James Kievel, OMI, as moderator. Little did Fr. kievel suspect that the League of Mary Immaculate was the Gospel 'Mustard Seed'. In 20 years this support association would evolve into the largest outdoor shrine in The world, the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows.
Devotion to Mary grew at the new seminary, and the interest in St. Henry'a by the Belleville Diocese and the Oblates was rewarded with numerous ordinations. On September 15, 1940, St. Mary's Church was the scene for The departure ceremonies of the first St. Henry's alumni to be sent to the foreign missions. Fr. Paul Drone, OMI, and Bro. Michael Braun, OMI, would serve in the Philippine lslands only two short years, for in July of 1942 Fr. Drone and Bro. Braun, along with another Oblate priest and a group of American Army officers were beheaded.
In other ways the Second World War left its marks on St. Henry's. During this period classes were held for the collegians all summer in order to keep the seminarians from being drafted into the Army. Almost by accident the war brought to St. Henry's the "Flying Priest", Fr. Paul Schulte, OMI. Because of his German birth, Fr. Schulte was confined to the campus of St. Henry's where he was held accountable to the FBI. Fr. Schulte brought with him a personal devotion to Mary, and during this period of internment, he used his time well in making known the devotion to Mary under the title of Our Lady of the Snows. In April of 1943, he installed the first painting of Our Lady of the Snows in the Seminary Chapel.
Always eager to promote devotion to Our Lady, Edwin J. Guild, OMI, who at the time was the school's treasurer and director of the Association of Mary Immaculate, was quick to recognize that the newly introduced devotion could be the means by which laymen might receive the many spiritual benefits of the Missionary Association of Mary Immaculate through an affiliation with the Association by reason of their devotion to Our Lady of the Snows. The seed was thus planted for this devotional renewal. On April 2, 1943, a perpetual novena was started to Our Lady of the Snows and has continued ever since. In 1958 the Shrine would be moved to the bluffs of the Mississippi River, but the St. Henry's chapel would remain as the first Shrine to Our Lady of the Snows.
