LEWISTON – The Franco-American Heritage Center at St. Mary’s has received approximately 2,000 French religious books from the former Oblate Retreat House in Augusta.

Executive Director Rita Dube said, “We already have hundreds of religious books and we just have so much space in our library. The interest in this type of book will be limited around here, therefore we looked for a place that would benefit from them elsewhere. We could not possibly throw them away and so we found another good home for them.”

Dube’s brother-in-law, Brother Emile Dube, SDB, is head of the Salesian Missions throughout the world. Since Haiti is a French-speaking country, he said they would like to send the books to their missions and novitiate houses in that area.

They will pay for the freight costs from here to Baltimore, Md., and from there the books will be held in a warehouse until the next ship sails for Haiti.