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 CATHEDRAL SCHOOL. The oldest school in the ARCHDIOCESE OF DUBUQUE, St. Raphael's Cathedral School was 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. (1)
BROTHERS OF THE SACRED HEART 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 constructed near the bluff. Brother Fabian S.C, Jean-Baptiste Bonnefoi (1825-1858), a faithful worker and a missionary brother from France, pushed himself to learn English quickly. On the founding faculty of St. Raphael's Academy in Dubuque, IA, in 1850, he taught there for nine years until his death on April 16, 1858, at the age of 32. He died young, partly due to the rigorous life and teaching in primitive conditions in the basement where classes were conducted. (1) 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. (3)
The Brothers bought a 261 acre farm for $6 an acre at auction. The property was adjacent to the seminary farm. It was four miles from Dubuque. The Brothers intended to establish a novitiate there if the congregation were to be expelled from France which was a real fear at the time. They did not establish a novitiate at New Paradise Grove, the name they gave to the property which was adjacent to the bishop's farm. When the seminary closed, the Brothers who were seven on the farm left in April of 1860 since it was too difficult for them to get to daily Mass. (4)
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. (5)
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. (6)
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. (7)
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. (8)
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Source:
1. 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
2. Brother Xavier Werneth, S.C. Email, January 25, 2020
3. Driscoll
4. Brother Xavier
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
