Crosiers and the Asmat

Alphonse Sowada, osc, with the other Crosiers living and working in Asmat in 1969 when he was ordained a bishop.

The Crosier Brothers and Fathers became missionaries to the Asmat in 1958, a few years after the Asmat invited the first missionaries to come to their land. Starting with the first four men, the Crosiers worked alongside the Asmat to preserve and develop their dignity, environment, artistic and spiritual heritage and dreams of a better life.

Since the beginning of the mission, the Crosiers have collected Asmat carvings and artifacts: a challenging task in a jungle where heat and humidity quickly destroy wooden and fibrous objects. Further, the Asmat used to treat their carved objects as recyclable. After use, they carried some of their carvings to their sago grounds in the jungle so that the spirits of their ancestors embodied in the carvings could enter the ground and nurture the sago trees.

Under the leadership of Bishop Alphonse Sowada, osc, first bishop of Agats-Asmat, the Crosiers opened the Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress in Agats in 1973. In 1975, they established the Crosier Asmat Museum in Hastings, Nebraska. In 1995, the American Museum of Asmat Art was officially established in St. Paul, Minnesota. Each year in Asmat, the bishop and mission sponsor an annual art contest where carvers bring their finest carvings for judging. Visitors from around the world are also drawn to this important event. Over the years the mission has also incorporated Asmat carvings, rituals, spirituality and traditions with Catholic ritual and teaching.

The Crosiers in Asmat are members of one of the oldest religious orders of priests and brothers in the Roman Catholic Church. Founded in Belgium by Blessed Theodore de Celles in 1210, the Crosiers live, pray and minister together under the symbol of the cross. Their traditional habit is from the times of the Crusades, marked with the red and white Maltese cross on their chest.

Today there are indigenous men who are living the Crosier way of life, along with the American men, in Asmat.

Crosier Fathers and Brothers
3510 Vivian Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55126
Phone: (651)486-7456
Fax: (651)287-1130
www.crosierhome.org

Bishop Sowada, osc, with Asmat chiefs in feastal decoration.	Bishop Sowada, osc.