Friday, August 05, 2011

Brother George Klawitter, C.S.C

I have traveled to St. Edward’s University (part of it was St.Edward’s High School until the high school closed it doors in 1967 to allow the university side to expand) four times in the last couple of years. It was back in 2009 when I noticed a man with a funny hat walk from one end of the old main building to the other. He wore glasses and seemed to have a permanent and content smile. I approached him and asked him who he was. He told me he was Brother George Klawitter, CSC and that he was a professor of English at the university. I sought him out at his office the next day and we had a short talk in which I quickly determined that Brother George:

1. Was a man of few words.

2. Had a quiet sense of humor.

3. His individuality was partially confirmed by his apology for the benefits of owning a Mac.

This past July I saw him walk by and I raised my voice to greet him. He didn’t hear me at first. Later on I saw him again and he asked me, “You were the one who waved at me earlier during the day?” Then he moved on. It seems that to my above list I must add that Brother George is a very busy man with a schedule.

So today I happened to be reading my St Edward’s University Magazine (Spring 2001 issue) and I caught this:

Klawitter Edits Poetry Book


Brother George Klawitter, CSC, professor of English, recently edited the works of a premier American Catholic poet in an anthology titled The Poems of Charles O’Donnell, CSC. The collection includes O’Donnell’s previously published work, as well as poems Klawitter discovered that have never been published.

Of course I became curious and looked up Charles O’Donnell. From the on-line archives of the American Libraries I found the reference to the book The Dead Musicians and Other Poems published in 1916. And it was there that I found the following O'Donnell short poem that packs a wallop.

THE MOTHERS

Three mothers met that woeful day;
One as her dead Son pale, one gray
With grieving, and one red with shame:
All called upon one blessed Name.

One from the sorrow of the Cross,
One by the woe of kindred loss,
And one cried out in agony
From shadow of a blacker tree.

One gave the Nazarean birth.
One brought the pardoned thief to earth,
While of that hopeless one begot
Was Judas the Iscariot.


On the net I found an article on O’ Donnell in the Notre Dame Magazine (the brothers, nuns and priests of Holy Cross, have CSC after their name and they teach and have taught at Notre Dame and at St Edward’s University and also in a string of Holy Cross high schools in the US) written by Jacqueline Vaught Brogan in 2003.  CSC stands for Congrégation de Sainte-Croix. It is in French because the order of Holy Cross was founded in Le Mans in the 19th century. One from their order, is one of Catholicism's newest saints and also Canada's first Canadian born saint, Saint André Bessett who was from Montreal. The article on O'Donnell is longish but interesting. It is here

The Saint and the Brother from Montreal