“It is quite a pleasure that we are receiving these icons of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the images that have been collected by Brother Donald,” says Father Anthony Lawir, pastor of St. Agnes Parish and Our Lady of the Snows Parish, which includes St. Anne Church. “It is so beautiful and so wonderful.”

The collection, which belonged to Brother Donald Lapointe, FIC, who passed away in 2017, includes nearly 1,300 pieces. There are candles, icons, pictures, plates, scrapbooks of prayer cards, night-lights, floor-length rosary beads, statues, and many more devotional items, all depicting the Blessed Mother under her various titles.

“There is Our Lady of the Child Jesus, Our Lady of Fatima,” says Brother Jerome Lessard, former superior of the Brothers of Christian Instruction. “There is an Our Lady of Lourdes collection, and then we had a Pietà collection and Our Lady of Grace. He had a whole collection of huge rosaries. This is Medjugorje, a whole collection, and Our Lady of the Cape in Canada.”

According to Cecile Lapointe, Brother Donald’s sister, his devotion to Mary began when he was a child. He was unable to walk due to polio, so his family prayed for the Blessed Mother’s intervention.

“My parents had gotten him a little rocking chair, and everybody would pray to Mary and to Mother Seton, too, and one day, he is rocking in his little chair, and he gets up and walks. He always believed that Mary was the one who did it for him,” she says.

Brother Donald joined the Brothers of Christian Instruction in 1952, and he spent most of his life with the brothers at the Notre Dame Spiritual Center in Alfred. He served as a teacher’s aide, a supervisor, and an infirmarian at the brothers’ Denis Hall Junior High School. Then, after retiring, he devoted his time to the Marian collection.

“That was his ministry. He would open it up to anybody who wanted to come, groups or individuals, so it was open to the public. He would receive people, talk to them, give them rosaries, holy cards,” says Brother Jerome. “He had a favorite chair there, his Bible, his rosary, waiting for people to come.”

Many of the items were gifts. Others were purchased by Brother Donald himself, using money he got for his birthday or Christmas. Cecile says she was among those who bought him items.

“Whatever I could find that had to do with Mary,” she says. “Plus, he used to come to visit me in Waterville, and in Oakland, there used to be a Christmas store. It was called 365 Days of Christmas, and they always had Madonnas. So, people would donate money to him, and he would come, and we would go there. We had to go there.” 

 With Brother Donald’s passing and with the other brothers aging and downsizing, the collection needed a new home. Brother Jerome approached Daniel Bedard, the Grand Knight of Saint Joseph Council 12941 in Biddeford, to seek his assistance in finding one.

“What we wanted to do was to keep it all together because we had some really nice pieces,” says Brother Jerome.

Bedard, who says he has a long family connection with the brothers, began searching for a location but says he initially wasn’t able to find one and feared the collection would have to be broken up. Then, a misfortune turned into an opportunity.

 Father Lawir’s car broke down on a trip to Portland, and needing a way to get back to his parishes, he reached out to Bedard, whom he had gotten to know while serving as a parochial vicar at Good Shepherd Parish in Saco. Father Lawir says Bedard agreed to give him a ride back, and as they drove, the conversation turned to the Marian collection.

“He said, ‘Father, you are Our Lady of the Snows. Would it not be ideal that you have these icons and all of that?’ I said, ‘Daniel, I think this is a big blessing for my parish and for us,’” says Father Lawir.

 Father Lawir says the idea was enthusiastically received when he brought it to parish council members.

“I think it’s really a special opportunity,” says Bill MacLaren, a member of the parish and pastoral councils at St. Agnes. “Especially here at St. Agnes, parishioners have a lot of devotion to the Lady, and this just brings more opportunities for people to see and enjoy all these icons and the photos and all the other things depicting her in all her different ways.”

“Having these holy items just helps increase our faith,” says Celeste Smith, who serves as a sacristan at St. Agnes. “I think we’ll add more grace to this faith community.”

Bedard recruited fellow Knights to move the collection, and the Knights covered related costs, including the rental of a U-Haul truck. 

“We wanted to make sure to support the pastor, Father Anthony, in making this mission very successful and making sure that [the collection] ended up where it needed to be,” says Simon Mutapa, district deputy for Knights in Biddeford, Lyman, and Old Orchard Beach.

On May 7, the Knights and other volunteers loaded dozens of boxes, as well as display cabinets and tables, onto the truck and other vehicles to make the 125-mile trip to Pittsfield and then another 20 miles to Dexter. When they arrived, parishioners and Knights from Father Patrick Hayes Council 3172 in Dover-Foxcroft joined in the effort.

“As a parish council member, I was excited to receive this collection for a handful of reasons, but the one that has me most excited is that it is an opportunity for us to come together as a parish,” says Catherine Bonhoff, from St. Agnes Parish. “It’s an opportunity for us to gather, rally together, and then to start to admire the items that we’ve received and then to work together to identify the best place for them. So, I see it as an opportunity for teamwork that will help build us as a faith community.”

“Father asked us to help, and we’re the right hand of the priest. That’s why we’re here helping,” says Richard Malinauskas, Grand Knight of the Father Patrick Hayes Council. “It’s a great project. It’s history that’s being continued on by spreading out all these relics and icons and statues.”

Cecile says she believes her brother would be pleased with the collection’s new home.

“I’m so happy. He would be happy, too,” she says. “I’m sure he’s smiling from heaven.”

Father Lawir, who says he has had a devotion to the Blessed Mother since his father taught him the Rosary as a child growing up in Cameroon, says he is pleased as well.

“I love Mary because she has done so much for me as a person. That’s my mother,” he says. “I recite the Rosary twice a day, at least twice a day. I do that every day for various intentions.”

 Father Lawir says he believes having Brother Lapointe’s collection on display at the two churches will promote Marian spirituality and will help parishioners better appreciate the important intercessory role that she plays.

“When you look at the foot of the cross where Jesus said, ‘Here, this is your mother,’ talking to John, the beloved apostle, and ‘This is your son,’ talking to the Blessed Virgin Mary, you realize that is our mother: mother of us as priests, mother of us as Christians. So, promoting her spirituality is growing in love of Jesus,” says Father Lawir. “As our children grow, seeing these icons, and as Christians see them, it will intensify their love for Mary and their love for their faith.”