Moments: Registration Week and Beanies at Bellarmine

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Novitiate year in St. Paul culminated in 21 of us professing temporary vows. Parents came and went and we assembled for a summer in Warrenton. Our next big adventure would be Louisville. We had no idea of the watershed moment that had occurred while we were in St. Paul. Holy Cross Province had elected to partner with Bellarmine College, a short walk from Sacred Heart Retreat in Louisville. Together with the class ahead of us–more than 30 of us–were soon to become part of a grand experiment: a college-accredited degree program leading to a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy (at least that was the intention of the higher-ups). No previous member of the Order had received such a degree as all of the education for the priests and brothers was conducted within the confines of the various foundations in the western province.

Classes were held both in the monastery and on campus. Within the walls of the monastery, we carried on in our black, wool habits and our life of prayer. Donning black slacks, white shirts, and thin, black ties, we traipsed over to Bellarmine to round out our curriculum in the sciences and humanities.

Registration for classes appeared to be a bit of a goat-roping to some of us newly-professed, isolated from the world of the last 366 days. Knights Hall was awash with students registering for classes. As freshmen, all of us were handed beanies–quartered with the school colors of red and white. We were told that this would be part of our attire for the next year anytime we were on campus. That beanie didn’t go very well with our black slacks, white shirts, and thin, black ties. It certainly made us seminarians stand out amidst the casual dress of our classmates. And it was big-enough news that The Courier-Journal picked up the story even though it centered on the beanies.