Welcome

Welcome to Saint Gerard's Youth Center and Trade School deep in the Amazon Jungle, 4 degrees below the equator in Coari, Amazonas, Brazil. What was once a seminary for the Redemptorist Vice-Province of Manaus, a Youth Center and Trade School has evolved. Since 1993, this facility has operated solely for the youth of the city and for the very poor, especially those with leprosy who have come to us as we reach out to them.

When I first arrived in Coari, I was shocked to see a city of 40,000 without something I took for granted in the U.S.A., they had no public or school libraries. The youth were roaming the streets when not in school. As you will see while browsing this website, the youth now have a place to work, play and pray together. I invite you to take some time to see what the Redemptorists have done over the past decade.

The Redemptorist Vice-Province of Manaus began in 1943 when the late Pope Pius XII asked the Mother Province, then called the St. Louis Province, if they would send men into the area as a mission of the mother province. We are a Vice-Province of what is now the Redemptorist Denver Province.