Fr. Irenaeus Herscher, O.F.M.

1902-1981

St. Bonaventure University

The Librarian

Fr. Irenaeus became head librarian of Friedsam Memorial Library in 1937. He is a crucial part of why the Library is what it is today. The rare book collection which he built is absolutely distinguished. From the smallest bible in the world, to the first book published in the United States, the collection is quite complete. He took great pride in this collection, as building it was a continuous and entertaining hobby for him during his tenure at St. Bonaventure.

What distinguished Irenaeus as a librarian was his love of giving tours of the library. He especially enjoyed showing off what all the hard work and dedication had made possible. He gave that tour to many people, including such celebrities as boxing great Jack Dempsey. Thomas Merton, a friend and former teacher at Bona's, wrote The Seven Story Mountain, in which he describes his first encounter with Fr. Irenaeus. 

    In order to make sure we would have plenty of books, we went down to the library at St. Bonaventure's College where this time, being baptized, I was no longer scared of the Friars.  The librarian was Father Irenaeus, who looked up at us through his glasses and recognized Lax with ingenuous surprise.  He always seemed to be surprised and glad to see everybody.  Lax introduced us to him: "This is Ed Rice, this is Tom Merton."
    "Ah!  Mr. Rice...Mr. Myrtle."  Father Irenaeus took us both in, with the eyes of a rather bookish child, and shook hands without embarrassment.
    "Merton," said Lax, "Tom Merton."
    "Yes, glad to know you, Mr. Myrtle," said Father Irenaeus.
    "They were at Columbia too," said Lax.
    "Ah, Columbia," said Father Irenaeus.  "I studied at the Columbia Library School," and then he took us into his own library and with reckless trust abandoned all the shelves to us.  It never occurred to him to place any limit upon the appetites of those who seemed to like books.  If they wanted books, well, this was a library.  He had plenty of books, that was what a library was for.  You could take as many as you liked, and keep them until you were through: he was astonishingly free of red tape, this happy little Franciscan. ... But as far as I know, Father Irenaeus has never been robbed of his books on a larger scale than any other librarian, and on the whole, the little library at St. Bonaventure's was always one of the most orderly and peaceful I have ever seen.    
    Presently we came out of the stacks with our arms full.
    "May we take all these, Father?"
    "Sure, sure, that's fine, help yourself."
    We signed a vague sort of a ticket, and shook hands.
    "Good-bye, Mr. Myrtle," said the Friar, and stood in the open door and folded his hands as we started down the steps with our spoils. (Merton, 262-3)

Merton described the library as it is: peaceful. Irenaeus saw this is as an interesting coincidence, because the donor of the library was Col. Michael Friedsam, which means 'peaceful' in German, and the librarian's name was Irenaeus which means 'peaceful' in Greek.

For more information on the Friedsam Library collection go to:

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Merton quote added 12/19/2003 by D. Frank.
Last updated:  01/30/07

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