Back in the summer of 2019, when I was first hired at Malden Catholic, I attended a meeting with other school leaders from the Xaverian Brothers Sponsored Schools (XBSS) network. One gentleman was wearing a polo shirt with the word “Ryken” on it. I learned he was from St. Mary’s Ryken in Maryland.

 

I asked him, “Who is Ryken?”

 

He looked at me with disbelief. After a few seconds, he said, “John, he is the founder of the Xaverian Brothers.”

 

As the new head of a Xaverian Brothers school, I was embarrassed. Since then, I have tried to learn more about Theodore James Ryken, and I have come to realize he lived an exceptional life. He was an ordinary man who achieved extraordinary things through his faith in God.

 

Born in Holland in 1797 to working-class parents, Ryken experienced hardship early in life. His father died when he was ten, and his mother could not afford to care for him, so he moved in with an uncle. As a young man, however, Ryken experienced a profound encounter with God, which he describes as “being put in his place.” He came to a place of conversion and “began to fall in love with God and put himself in the service of God.”

 

He taught poor boys to make shoes. He cared for the sick and dying during a cholera outbreak. He became a missionary in America, traveling thousands of miles to serve others. Through these experiences, he became convinced that God was calling him to establish a congregation of Brothers dedicated to the Christian education of young people.

 

His path was anything but easy.

 

When Ryken approached Church leaders with his idea to start a religious congregation, they initially rejected the idea. He walked hundreds of miles to Rome to seek approval for his plan, but they turned him down. Yet, he persevered. Years later, he made the long trek to Rome a second time and eventually received permission to establish the Xaverian Brothers.

 

Even then, Ryken’s struggles were not over. The congregation grew slowly, and he struggled with finances and administration. Eventually, the Bishop of Bruges asked him to resign as leader of the Xaverian Brothers, the congregation that he had founded.

 

Ryken made the extraordinary decision to step down voluntarily.

 

He did not abandon the mission because he was no longer in charge. Instead, he spent his final eleven years as a simple Brother in the congregation he had created. The mission mattered more than his position.

 

Ryken’s life was marked by humility, trust, perseverance, service, and a willingness to “march on” even when the path was difficult. He was an ordinary man who accomplished the extraordinary as he simply believed God could work through him.

 

The Book of Judith reminds us: