The Brothers of the Sacred Heart

The Brothers of the Sacred Heart were founded in post-revolutionary France by Father André Coindre (1787-1821), a priest of the diocese of Lyon. The first Brothers gathered as a religious family to educate orphans and juvenile delinquents and to live a communal life of prayer, obedience and celibacy. The congregation quickly expanded to staff schools in poor rural communities that had previously been unable to attract qualified and committed teachers.

 

In 1848 the Brothers established their first overseas mission, an orphanage for boys in Mobile, Alabama. Over the next half century, Brothers’ communities were established across the United States and Canada. It was from the New England Province that the Brothers established a presence in England, purchasing St Columba’s College in 1955 from its founding headmaster and proprietor, Mr Philip O’Neill.

 

In 1956 the Brothers began teaching at St Francis Secondary School in Malole, Northern Rhodesia, a remote mission in the colony’s northernmost province. Members of the community were present at the ceremony marking Zambia’s independence from Britain in 1964 and played a significant role in the educational development of the young nation. Today the great majority of Brothers in Zambia and the community’s leadership are indigenous Africans. St Columba’s College enjoys a close relationship with the congregation’s Zambian schools; the Prep Department is twinned with Shitima Community School in Kabwe and the Senior Department with St Francis Secondary.

 

Today the Brothers serve in 32 countries around the world. They are a religious institute of pontifical right, transcending the boundaries of any one diocese and enjoying a direct relationship with the Holy See. As religious vocations decline in the West, the brotherhood continues to grow in the developing world: Africa, Madagascar, South America and Oceania. Since 2006 the community has been led by Brother José Ignacio Carmona, Superior General, a native of Spain who has worked most of his life in Colombia.