Pope Pius XI died suddenly on February 10, 1939. Holding the Brothers of the Christian Schools in high esteem, Pope Pius XI had requested that Brothers’ generalate (headquarters) move from Belgium to Rome several years earlier. It was he who elevated two Americans (Archbishop Patrick Hayes of New York and Archbishop George Mundelein of Chicago), both taught by Brothers in NYC, as Cardinals. Bulletin of the St. La Salle Auxiliary (Barrytown, NY), March 1939, pp. 35-38. He was nicknamed the “Pope of Catholic Action.”
