Apostolic College of Saint Joseph. Augustinian Recollects. Lodosa, Navarre, Spain. 1925-1993.

The minor seminary of the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine in Navarra, Spain, until 1993 was inaugurated on the cold morning of January 11, 1925. We recall that day and its first year of life from the Bulletin of the Province.

On January 11, the Diario de Navarra, in its “Diary of Remembrance” section, recalled one of the news items it had published a century earlier:

“The Augustinian School was inaugurated in Lodosa. The Augustinian Fathers from San Millán de la Cogolla established a School-Seminary in Lodosa, which was inaugurated on this Sunday, characterized by intense cold. A solemn Mass was celebrated, officiated by the director of the new school, Fr. Joaquín Usabiaga. After Mass, the Blessed Sacrament was carried to the oratory of the new College. At the end of the ceremony, the students sang the Hymn to St. Augustine.”

The Bulletin of the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine published the details of this foundation, made with the aim of moving the Saint Joseph Preparatory College located in San Millán de la Cogolla (La Rioja, Spain) to a new house.

The Vicar in Spain set his sights on a “proper building for the purpose” in Lodosa, 76 kilometers east of San Millán, and proceeded to purchase it. The Bulletin explained the details of that first year (summarized and edited text).

January 15, 1925

Our new Preparatory College has finally been inaugurated. What has long been an aspiration is now a reality. Once the building with its garden and outbuildings had been acquired, and all the canonical and legal requirements had been met, the first expedition was set to leave San Millán on January 2, 1925.

It was made up of the director, Fr. Joaquín Usubiaga, Brother Juan Machicote and eleven children. On the morning of the 5th, the second expedition left, another 16 children from the first year like the previous ones, accompanied by Fr. Manuel Carceller.

We were already in Lodosa, where from the first moment we began to receive visits and proofs of sympathy and affection. Our neighbors came to offer themselves to us for everything. The parish priest, Fr. Santiago Arnaiz, proposed Sunday the 11th, the feast of the Holy Family, for the inauguration of the School, with a solemn mass in the parish church. On the day of the Epiphany he announced the inauguration to the people.

The 11th dawned very unpleasant. 15 minutes before 10 o’clock the students, in full uniform and followed by the religious, went to the parish amidst the admiration of the people of Lodosa, many of whom already filled the wide naves of the church, showing their pleasure at our arrival.

The students sang with great enthusiasm and grace. In the sermon, Fr. Pedro made a beautiful prayer of greeting and introduction, later developing the theme of “The harvest is plentiful and the workers are few.”

In the church, in addition to the authorities, there were religious associations, children from public schools with their teachers and those from the Sacred Heart of Jesus School of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent of Paul.

After the mass, a procession was organized to take the Blessed Sacrament to the School, since Bishop Mateo Múgica has granted our oratory the status of semi-public.

In the reception hall of the School, the clergy, authorities and other personalities were treated to a lunch. At one o’clock the banquet was served in the beautiful dining room, with the director and the parish priest sitting at both heads of the table, and on either side the mayor Rufo Tapia, the lieutenant of the Civil Guard Jesús Miranda, the municipal judge Vicente Ramírez, the three coadjutors, Mr. Jerónimo del Rey, Mr. Ángel Marín and Mr. Felipe Revert and the Recollect religious Hilario Vega, Rogelio Barasoain, Pedro de la Dedicación and Manuel Carceller.

During the meal there was frank joy and animation, as if we had all known each other for a long time, and after dessert and coffee the gramophone delighted our ears. After a while of after-dinner conversation, Fr. Pedro gave a snapshot of all the guests in the entrance gallery (photo on the cover).

The day was full of pleasant and sweet impressions that filled us with great hopes. Lodosa, without a doubt, has realized the importance of our coming and contributed to the greater brilliance of the opening celebration, thereby showing us its support, which we greatly appreciate.

A telegram was sent to the Bishop of Pamplona, greeting him and asking for his blessing, and he immediately responded: “Requests granted, cordial blessing.” The general commissioner and the vicar of the Province also joined by telegram; and by letter 17 students from the Marcilla Preparatory School and the 47 students from San Millán.

Our school is located at the entrance to the town, just after crossing the bridge over the Ebro river. The whole plot is fenced, three sides with a wall and the fourth, which runs along the road, with an artistic iron gate on an artificial stone base. It has a large central doorway for carriages with an electric arch at the top, and another small service door on one side; next to the gate is the gatehouse, which is also ours.

The whole façade measures 42 metres; the left side, 56; the right, 58, and the back, 51. Half of the land is cultivated and the other half is a garden with palm trees and other trees; there is also a pond and a pretty imitation of a grotto through which water flows, in which the children put an image of the Virgin of Lourdes and filled it with pictures, which the visitors really liked. A gazebo is built over the grotto.

The house consists of a mezzanine, with a metre of drainage above ground level, a main floor and a second floor. The main entrance is a small staircase of compressed marble and a gallery with slabs of the same material, above which extends a sunny terrace, all with a balustrade of artificial stone.

The staircase, very beautiful, is of natural white marble, with an elegant and artistic railing placed on candlesticks and a handrail of tapestry covered with velvet and with fringe; on the wall there are some white metal rings on which a beautiful red silk cord is placed.

The floors are in some places of mosaic and in others of American pine; the corridors and staircase are painted in oils, as are some rooms; others are wallpapered, having all the ceilings, with a flat ceiling, beautiful and artistic decorations of decorative sculpture.

The room converted into an oratory has a beautiful rotunda of colored glass, where the altar has been placed. Above this rotunda there is another small terrace. Between the Fathers’ dining room and the reception and the main room there is a very valuable door, of colored glass; two others of the same style exist on the stairs.

There are fireplaces made of English marble in three rooms. The kitchen has a thermosiphon with hot water for the washbasin and bathroom, which is tiled, as are the three toilets, which have a WC. There are well-equipped basements for pantry. Part of the building is crowned by an elegant artificial stone railing.

The house has other rooms next to the garden wall: a beautiful and capable garage and, separated by a patio, a barn and stable in the same building and a tank on a thick reinforced concrete column, whose height is about eleven meters, the water rising from it being pumped by a motor pump. There is also a suitable place for farm animals.

At present it is only used for the children there, so the highest part is going to be extended to one of its sides, so that 75 to 80 students can be accommodated, which could be by next September, thus creating an elegant and good school. And even more so will be the day when the chapel is built, which is in the planning stages and whose works will begin as soon as the building is finished.

March 16, 1925

In these two months our life has been happy and peaceful. The students continue to be very happy, running around this beautiful lot without wanting to return to where they were.

Their families, who have come to visit them, have left pleasantly impressed after having seen how red-face they have and admiring the beauty of the building and its good condition. The impression that the new College has produced in more than one has surpassed what they had imagined from references.

The lot has been enlarged with the acquisition of a beautiful orchard. We have made some repairs to the wall that surrounds it and the foundations have been opened and the basement of the new building has been dug.

The people continue with the same affection or more than the first day and the name Recoleto begins to be known, with our religious preaching in the surroundings.

May 18, 1925

On the day I signed my previous chronicle, at three in the afternoon, the first shovelful of concrete was being poured for the foundations. The wall was raised up to a meter above the ground, as was the rest of the house, where the refectory floor and the classrooms are to be, with movable partitions to convert it into a spacious assembly hall.

Following the concrete comes the brick wall, of very good quality, rising from section to section with eight reinforced concrete columns, four on each side, for better connection.

The floor timbers are already in place, as well as the door, window and balcony frames. Now we await the T-shaped iron beams to continue with the other two floors of bedrooms.

The house and the gardens have become more beautiful and cheerful with the spring, which has brought us the nightingales and has covered the trees and plants with leaves and flowers. This whole landscape is truly charming and even poetic.

Our life continues peacefully and calmly. The students, happy and playful, spend almost all the breaks with the ball, having formed two complete teams. At this rate they will acquire such ease that they will soon be like Zamora, Samitier and other big players. During the break you hear nothing but “hand”, “corner”, “penalty”, “goal”, etc.

In our oratory there was no Easter service and we attended the Parish, increasing the splendor of the events, our students also serving as an example of order and composure for the other children.

During the Easter holidays we went on trips to Alcanadre, Sartaguda, Sesma and Cárcar, where people came out to see the students who attracted attention for their good appearance, their caps and their uniform. More than one child wanted to follow them.

13 September 1925

The double T beams finally arrived, were placed and the work continues. At the end of this month the remaining students at San Millán will be transferred, the first year new students will enter and, at the beginning of October, classes will begin.

The day the roof was finished, at about midday, we were surprised by some fireworks. We went out and saw the workers placing the last tile and, as usual, the flag to solemnize the event. In the afternoon they received a gift from the master builder.

The students continued happy, now busy with the arrangement of the gardens as well as playing; the sun and the riverside air have tinted their faces, a color that is health and life, as can be seen in the visits of the doctor, who until now have visited us just for friend visits, and may he continue like this for the good of all.

On June 22nd we received a beautiful piano purchased at Casa Luna in Saragossa, which everyone who saw and heard it liked very much. It was an Orphens brand, made of walnut, with crossed strings and two pedals, and very clear voices.

We thought that this year St. Augustine’s Day would go almost unnoticed due to the circumstances, but we still had a bit of a party. At eight in the morning, with the children placed in the hall and the doors opened to accommodate more people, Mass was sung and, at the end, the Hymn to St. Augustine.

At noon, Jerónimo del Rey, Ángel Marín and a civil guard, father of two seminarians, sat at our table. In the afternoon we received a visit from the parish priest, the three assistants and the chaplain of the Hospital. We treated them to pastries, liqueurs and a gramophone and piano session.

On August 31, Lodosa’s festivities, we attended and sang at the High Mass to honor the Patrons and the people who have welcomed us so well, accompanied by Fr. Miguel Avellaneda, who was visiting us.

The families of the seminarians have come on vacation to visit them, leaving very impressed and delighted to have their children here, in such a good place and in such good conditions.