by Roz Young
Much complaint against Leo Meyer continued to be raised by disgruntled brothers who stated that Meyer did little to prepare the brothers for teaching assignments. Consequently, when they went out to the various schools, their training was so poor that they failed in their appointments.
One brother, Thomas Mooney, said, "Little was done at the central house, Nazareth, for training or in any way preparing the postulants and novices for teaching school. Young and old, all worked on the farm. In fact, necessity obliged such a course. The community was too poor to allow them to do otherwise.
"As a natural consequence, many of the young candidates did not persevere, and those of them who did, together with those who were advanced in years, whenever sent out to teach, had to undertake to discharge their very responsible duties without any preparation. Yet by God's great blessing they persevered."
Brother Edward Gorman described a typical day at Nazareth: "During the early days, Fridays and Saturdays were abstinence days. Meat was never served at supper. Wine, beer, or cider were never served at table.
"On Thursday preceding Quinquagesima Sunday, meat was served for the last time until Easter Sunday. During Lent, this was the daily routine: After the morning meditation, the brothers left church to go to their several places of occupation until 11 o'clock, when they returned for Mass. Office was said during Mass. After Mass, examen; then dinner. When it was too dark, too cold, or too wet, the brothers remained in the tailor or shoemaker shop and studied English. That regulation was too severe, for some good men left us. They said that if they only had a cup of milk (coffee was unknown here) and a piece of dry bread, they could stand the work and hunger, but an empty stomach and hard work was an impossible combination for them."
Brother John Stintzi wrote to Father Georges Caillet, superior general of the Society of Mary, urging the recall of Meyer to Europe, saying that the future of the Society of Mary in America demanded it, the future of Nazareth depended on it and the infirmities and premature old age of Father Meyer required it.
Brother Andrew Edel painted an unpleasant picture of relations between Meyer and the clergy when he wrote to Caillet that many pastors desired to have brothers, but there was a wall between them and Father Meyer. "They do not wish to deal with him in any way," he wrote; "they despise him. We are affected in some way by this, but the pastors are not in the wrong. Father Meyer is a fiery, hot-headed man, mysterious and tricky in whatever he says or does. He wishes to tell everyone off. He has a cold heart without kindness. I would like to see him back in France. I admit, nevertheless, he has a good head for business. ..."
Meyer did make an effort to repair the situation. With the archbishop's approval on May 17, 1862, he bought the Swaynie Hotel on the corner of First and Race streets in Dayton to which he planned to transfer the pupils of St. Mary's Institute, leaving the Nazareth property for the training of the brothers.
Nothing came of his plans. Bishop Amadeus Rappe of Cleveland, after a trip to Rome, stopped off in Bordeaux to see Father Caillet, suggesting the removal of Father Meyer. Caillet sent a visitor back with Bishop Rappe to try to straighten out the problems.
The visitor was John Courts, the superior of the province of southern France. He held long conversations with Brothers Litz and Stintzi, as well as Bishop Rappe, and concluded that any arrangement or compromise with Father Meyer was impossible. He arranged for a retreat for all brothers at Nazareth, followed by a meeting of the Provincial Chapter, at which he found much support for Father Meyer.
Courts sent minutes of the meetings to Europe. The superiors in Europe decided to remove Father Meyer.
Meyer made a strong defense of all his activities in America, but the decision remained to recall him to France.
He left Dayton on Nov. 24, 1862, and arrived at Le Havre on Jan. 1, 1863. He was appointed director of the orphan asylum at Kembs, Alsace. He went to Rome for two months in 1866, and on his return to France he went finally to Saint Remy, where he died Jan. 28, 1868, a few months before his 68th birthday.
Brother John E. Garvin, in his The Centenary of the Society of Mary, published in 1917, likened his life to that of Christian in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. He had come from the Delectable Mountain of a successful career in France to America, where he walked through the Valley of Tribulation and the desert of Desolation through the Slough of Despond "and just as he was emerging, and had begun to see the lights on the distant mountains of Expectation ... he was called upon to pass his burden to another and to retrace his doleful way back again through slough and desert, even to his distant starting point. But his labors are remembered and his memory will be forever cherished.
" 'He went with bounding heart and glowing soul
From scenes of triumph - forth to start anew.
He toiled - but all in weariness and pain
And oft in darkness - but the mansion grew!
He saw not clearly, but his faith was firm,
And lo!- he had built better than he knew!' "'
Leo Meyer did build better than he knew.
Two years from now, the University of Dayton will celebrate the 150th anniversary of its founding. The founder? Father Leo Meyer.
Roz Young is a columnist, author, historian and lifelong Dayton-area resident. Address: Dayton Daily News, P.O. Box 1287, Dayton, Ohio 45402. Phone messages can be left at 225-2289.