Red Book 1912 - J. Soul - Kyambu

Henry J. Koren, Spiritan East African Memorial, He was in the diocesan senior seminary of Coutances when he wanted to join the Congregation, but his bishop refused to send the necessary testimonial letters until he was instructed to do so by the Holy See in 1902. He made his vows at Orly on February 8, 1903. Sent to Fribourg, he continued his theology program, but also studied geology and related subjects at the Faculty of Science. He was ordained a priest at Chevilly on November 5, 1905. On September 10, 1907 he sailed for the Vicariate of Zanzibar. Bp. Allgeyer placed him at Mangu. There he quickly realized that the lofty sciences he had absorbed at the university would not be of much use for teaching the alphabet and the Our Father to his Kikuyu people. ln 1910 we find him at Kiambu and two years later in Nairobi, first at Holy Family and then at St. Austin's and finally at Lioki. World War One mobilized him in the French forces and then as an interpreter with the American army fighting in France. ln 1919 he obtained transportation to East Africa and went to the Kilimanjaro vicariate as its Apostolic Administrator, pending the appointment of a successor to Bp. Munsch, who was persona non grata to the British authorities in Tanganyika. He saw the destruction the Boer troops had inflicted on the Catholic missions and heard an officer of the British Army exclaim: "Have they been flghting against the Germans or against Catholics?" Despite interminable difficulties, he managed to save the vicariate from disintegration and could hand it over in 1922 to his successor, the future Bp. Henry Gogarty. ln 1922 he retumed to France, serving at the Mother House of the Congregation in Paris for several years. After the election of Bp. Louis Le Hunsec as Superior General, he assumed the function of official visitor of provinces and districts. As such, he went all over the Spiritan world. ln 1936 he became superior of the international scholasticate at Fribourg. After World War Two we find him at Piré-sur-Seiche, at the new novitiate for Brothers, and in 1949 as chaplain of the Holy Spirit Sisters at Nogent-sur-Marne, Seine.