MARIAN LIBRARY
NEWSLETTER (New Series)
IN
MEMORIAM
August and September 1985, the Marian Library bid farewell to its first two directors. This 'Newsletter is dedicated to the memory of these pioneers to whom we are so immensely indebted. In
Rev. t.wrence w. Monheim, S.M. (1905-1985) Lawrence Monheim, the ninth of fourteen children, was born in Pittsburgh on May 25, 1905, the son of Charles and Catherine H. (nee Kier) Monheim. He attended St. Leo's School on the North Side, and in 1920 came to the University of Dayton's Preparatory School to finish his high school. His clear intention in coming was to become a Marianist. On October 2, 1923, the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels and anniversary of the foundation of the Society of Mary, he made his first vows in the novitiate at Dayton's Mount St. John. He pronounced his final vows in the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception at the University of Dayton in 1928. After teaching in Philadelphia and Cleveland, he entered the seminary in Fribourg, Switzerland, where he was ordained priest on March 8, 1936. Following his ordination, he began a long pastoral ministry which took him to Mineola, Dayton, Washington, D.C., Sioux City, Puerto Rico, and finally back to Dayton. Father Philip Hoelle, who in 1954 succeeded Father Monheim as director of the Marian Library, was homilist at his Mass of Christian Burial. Fr. Hoelle summarized the second half of Fr. Manheim's six decades of priestly ministry by recalling his various apostolic roles in Dayton: "teacher, chaplain, assistant pastor, professor, chairman of the University's department of religion, hospital chaplain, Marian Library founder and director, mission preaching for the Marianist Mission, coordinator of mission circles, volunteer services to the elderly and the sick, tireless promoter of the Marian Library." During his last fifteen years, . Fr. Monheim served as a temporary associate pastor or administrator for some twenty parishes in the Dayton area.
No.14
January, 1986
Fr. Monheim deserves a great deal of credit for his enterprise as the founder and director (during two terms in office) of the UD's Marian Library. He entered upon this task in August of 1943, when Fr. John Elbert, in his capacity as UD president, asked him to begin this work; at that time, Fr. Monheim was serving as Head of the Religion Department. The two men had discussed this project, originally an idea of Fr. William Ferree, S.M. (d. August 30, 1985), as an appropriate way to mark the anticipated Mari1)1849-:anist Triple Centennial of 1949-50: arrival of the first Marianists to the U.s.; 2)1850-founding of the University of Dayton (begun as St. Mary's School for boys); 3)1850death of Fr. Chaminade, Founder of the Marianists. With characteristic verve and enthusiasm, Fr. Monheim launched the project and made it known to a wide public within a very short time. On September 23, 1943, he sent out a hectographed letter to all publishers of Catholic books announcing the founding of the Marian Library; he requested a ''list of all the books you publish under the title of Mary" as well as "any suggestions that you in your experience with books would be able to give" (Marian Library Studies I [1969] 13). On October 15, 1943, another letter was sent to some 260 librarians in Catholic colleges and seminaries, requesting information about their Marian holdings and the donation of duplicate copies. Then, on October 20, 1943, Fr. Elbert officially opened the Marian Library by presenting a copy of his own work, Devotion to Mary in the Twentieth Century, to Fr. Monheim.
Marian Library seal -- designed in 1949 by George Yehle. Latin motto translates : •of Mary never enough. •