Salvatorian community and students, June, 1946

Date

• ca. 1946

Publisher

Saint Nazianz, Wisconsin: Salvatorian Fathers

Summary

• Members of the Society of the Divine Savior, along with young men and boys who attended their Salvatorian Seminary in St. Nazianz, Wisconsin, pose in front of the large main seminary building in June 1946. Part of the three-story building's front facade lined with windows is visible behind the group. In the rear center are ornate double entrance doors under a carved stone sign that reads "Salvatorian Seminary." St. Nazianz had been founded in 1854 as a Catholic communistic community by Father Ambrose Oschwald and 113 settlers from the Black Forest region of Germany. In 1896 remnants of the original "Oschwald Association" merged with the Society of the Divine Savior to effect the first permanent Salvatorian community in the United States. The religious order was known locally as the Salvatorian Fathers. In the 1940s the large Salvatorian motherhouse facility in St. Nazianz included the "new" seminary building that had been erected in 1939, a residence hall, a gymnasium and athletic fields, a carpenter shop, barns, and a building that housed the Salvatorian Publishing Department. In its rural setting, the seminary encouraged students to answer World War II calls for additional farm hands. For example, in 1943, the school moved its graduation up eleven days in order to "hurry the students into the ranks of industry and agriculture to help alleviate the labor shortage." This photograph was published in "Golden Jubilee 1896-1946, Salvatorian Fathers, St. Nazianz, Wisconsin" printed by Ozaukee Press.