Several
years ago, I visited the archives of Manhattan College in the Riverdale section
of the Bronx in order to research the life and career of my great-granduncle,
Joseph Lawrence Scanlon. He was born in
Nyack, on the Hudson River in upstate New York, in 1878. As a teenager in 1893, he entered the Institute
of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, a religious order less formally known
as the Christian Brothers, and he took the name Brother Apelles Jasper. This pursuit of the consecrated life enabled
him to receive an extensive education at Manhattan College, Columbia
University, and the Catholic University of America. This prepared him for a distinguished
academic career as professor, dean, president, and trustee at Manhattan College. In addition, he edited and wrote for several
academic and religious journals. Subsequently,
he became a librarian at the LaSalle Military Academy, a Christian Brothers
high school in Oakdale, on the South Shore of Long Island. Finally, he died in New York City in 1944.
In
the course of my research, I had the privilege of meeting Brother Luke Salm, a
professor emeritus of history and an archivist at Manhattan College. When he was a young man in the 1930s, Brother
Luke knew Brother Jasper, and he remembered him well. Brother Luke recalled that when he was a
college student, he spent his summer vacations at the LaSalle Academy in
Oakdale. During these times, he observed Brother Jasper setting out on the
Great South Bay early every morning in a small motorboat. Apparently, Brother Jasper enjoyed sailing on
salt water!
Of
course, this is a very tenuous connection to the sea. Brother Jasper was not a merchant seaman, but it would be accurate to
call him an amateur bay man. Besides, in
this era before many of the bridges and tunnels in New York were built, he most
certainly sailed on ferries across the Hudson River and other waterways. Thus, Brother Jasper was acquainted at least with
the tributaries of the sea.
My
interest in Brother Jasper stemmed from our being related. Getting to know him was facilitated by the
lengthy paper trail he left behind, The
archives yielded a storehouse of material written both about him and by
him. In perusing this collection, it
became clear to me that Brother Jasper was a very intelligent and very learned
man as well as a highly accomplished academician. This assessment was confirmed by a confrere’s
notation that he was “remembered as a teacher for his intimacy with many areas
of learning.”[1] His connection to the Great South Bay came as
a bonus.
Among
Brother Jasper’s writings was some poetry which illustrated his range of
subject matter. Writing on a religious
theme, he incorporated, for example, philosophy and biology, subjects that he
taught, into some of his poems. And
while never having been a merchant seaman, he did include the sea in one of them. Naturally, this one is my favorite:
Though stormy seas about me roll,
And angry waves conceal the goal,
I need not fear.
Though my frail bark is tempest
tossed,
And strangers crowd, yea, all seems
lost;
I should not fear.
Though friends rebuke and foes malign,
Unholy ones their strength combine;
I will not fear.
For Thou whom winds and sea obey
Will all my pains and grief allay,
When Thou art near.[2]
As
these verses demonstrate, Brother Jasper was a man of great faith, and he used
his literary skills to share this faith with others. For this, we who read his poetry owe him a debt
of gratitude. I also feel honored that he
included the seafaring profession in his work, and I appreciate his use of the
metaphor of the storm at sea.
Brother
Jasper’s abiding religious faith was evident in all of his poetry and prose. Also clear was his admiration for the works
of charity and acts of selfless service to others that such faith engendered. He admired holy and Christ-like men who quietly
did the Lord’s work without calling attention to themselves. Furthermore, as a man of quiet contemplation, he
recognized that the Lord operated through the still small voice and not the
splash of sensationalism, and he asserted, “The divine call to a higher life is
a gentle influence.”[3]
Perhaps
Brother Jasper experienced some of this “gentle Influence” on the Great South
Bay. The sea and its tributaries have
bespoken the existence and genius of God to many of us, and certainly Brother
Jasper would recognize such a manifestation of the Deity. Yet he would also realize that while we live
here on the created Earth, we are not entirely a part of it. As a spiritual man, he understood the human
capacity for something higher and greater, and in another poem he exhorted:
O mortal, rise above the clod
That holds thee down so low:
Enjoy the presence of thy God
Wherein all blessings flow.[4]
A
colleague wrote that Brother Jasper possessed “a quiet nobility of soul”[5]
and had “a remarkable devotion to duty.”[6]
Another stated that he had “a kindness
of disposition, an urbanity of manner, an evenness of temper, a goodness of
heart, and a never-failing cheerfulness.”[7] This was in addition to his “more than
ordinary intelligence,”[8]
which made him “a walking encyclopedia of language, science, mathematics,
philosophy, and literature.”[9] Finally, he was described as “one of the
truly great men that every once in a while the Lord sends to the earth.”[10]
It
seems to me that the faith and spirituality of such a great man could only have
been increased by his experience on the Great South Bay, and it would have been
much further magnified if he had actually gone to sea. I am certain that a transoceanic voyage would
have been a truly grand epiphany for him.
Now
let us put a face to the name. I have only
four photographs of Brother Jasper, and this is the earliest. It is believed to have been taken in a studio
in New York in the early 1900s when he was in his mid-twenties.
[1] Br. Casimir
Gabriel, F.S.C., The Tree Bore Fruit: Manhattan College 1853-1953,
Riverdale, NY: Manhattan College, 1953, p. 71.
This splendid volume recounts the history of Manhattan College in its
first century and was a gift to me from Brother Luke.
[2] Joseph L. Scanlon
(Br. Apelles Jasper, F.S.C.), “Fear Not,” in The Manhattan Quarterly,
April, 1914, p. 42.
[3] Joseph L. Scanlon
(Br. Apelles Jasper, F.S.C.), Life of Venerable Brother Benilde of the
Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, p. 33, unpublished
typescript held in the Manhattan College archives and dating from the 1940s.
[4] Joseph L. Scanlon
(Br. Apelles Jasper, F.S.C.), “The Flower,” in The Manhattan Quarterly,
April, 1914, p. 9.
[5] Manhattan College
memorandum on the death of Brother Apelles Jasper on February 20, 1944, and
held in the Manhattan College archives.
[6] Ibid.
[7] From a speech given
by an unnamed confrere on the occasion of Brother Apelles Jasper’s Golden
Jubilee at Manhattan College on December 19, 1943, and held in the Manhattan
College archives.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Manhattan College
memorandum previously cited.
