Encyclopedia Dubuque
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
SAINT RAPHAEL'S CATHEDRAL SCHOOL
ST. RAPHAEL'S SCHOOL. Oldest school in the ARCHDIOCESE OF DUBUQUE. Established in 1836 by Father Samuel MAZZUCHELLI in the basement of the cathedral, St. Raphael's was a boys' school taught at first by laymen and laywomen. One of its first teachers John J. E. Norman, later Dubuque County's first superintendent of schools. He was joined by three other male instructors.
BROTHERS OF CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION came to Dubuque from LePuy, France in 1851 to be instructors at the boys' primary and high school held in the basement of the episcopal residence and a two-story brick building under the bluff. By 1852 the Brothers were teaching 130 boys and the school was receiving state aid. Each boy paid tuition of fifty-cents-per month and learned Bible history and English using Reeves' Bible Text.
With the closing of MOUNT ST. BERNARD SEMINARY where the Brothers had been given a novitate, they discontinued their work. During the CIVIL WAR, boys who had not received their First Communion were instructed by the SISTERS OF CHARITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY (BVM). In 1865 the boys' school of two rooms containing fifty boys each was taught by two laywomen.
The building of a boys' school behind ST. RAPHAEL'S CATHEDRAL was started in the late 1860s by Father O'Reilly. From then until 1884 the Christian Brothers of St. Louis were in charge of the school. After 1884 the Sisters of Charity, BVM instructed boys and girls at the cathedral school.
The most recent St. Raphael's School was constructed at Emmett and Bluff in 1904. Although the oldest school in the archdiocese, St. Raphael's kept up with current educational theory. A teacher-aid program was started in September, 1963. The same year a school lunch program was begun. Enrollment, however, decreased from a peak of 500 to 278 in 1965 being instructed by seven Sisters and two lay teachers. By the late 1980s the school had been closed and the building converted into a physical fitness center.
Among the school's illustrious graduates was Father Daniel O'Regan, ordained a priest on May 30, 1863, who was the first native Iowan ordained in Rome and Iowa's first resident to receive a doctorate from the North American College. Among the parishioners to become priests was Rev. Thomas RHOMBERG.
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Source:
Driscoll, Rt. Rev. Msgr. Justin A. With Faith and Vision: Schools of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, 1836-1966, Dubuque: Bureau of Education, Archdiocese of Dubuque, 1967, p. 2-3
