Catholic Schools Week: The Saints

Below are some brief bios of some saints and the roles they played in furthering Catholic education. I wrote them to be shared over the PA, one per period, on Monday of Catholic Schools Week to begin our celebration of our Catholic identity.

Big thanks go to Notre Dame Vision and the awesome bios in their journal, Catholic Online, and the various websites of these religious communities. All of them were used in part toward the biosI compiled below.

MAJOR FIGURES IN CATHOLIC EDUCATION

Jean Baptiste de la Salle

At the beginning of each class period today, we celebrate Catholic Schools Week by learning about a major figure in the history of Catholic education and praying for them to watch over Bishop Noll and Catholic Schools everywhere. To begin, let us first remember St. Jean Baptiste de la Salle, patron of all teachers.

While serving as a priest at a cathedral in his native France, Jean met someone who was establishing new schools for poor boys, and it changed his life. Jean became the leader of this project. He built a house to live in together with the teachers, the beginnings of what is today called the Christian Brothers. They tried innovative new teaching methods and insisted on educating children regardless of their ability to pay tuition.

Their new system of schools grouped students by ability, integrated religious teaching into other subjects, and focused on preparing teachers. Today, the Christian Brothers operate 78 schools across the US, the most of any religious order. In fact, the Christian Brothers once ran Bishop Noll. Three different brothers led the school for 7 years, from 1962 until 1969.

St. Jean Baptiste de la Salle, pray for us.

St. Ursula & St. Angela Merici

St. Ursula was a 4th century martyr, who we don’t know much about. Her and her companions were honored with a basilica in Cologne, and her legend grew over the years. In the 16th century, in Italy, St. Angela Merici was dissatisfied with the options for women - get married or enter a monastery. She formed a new community of women to live the Gospel in the world and help all women realize their dignity. St. Angela chose St. Ursula to be the patroness of her community.

Over time, the Ursuline Sisters spread throughout Europe and then came to North America, too. They now serve in Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, Illinois, and Minnesota. They operate several all-girls Catholic schools and continue to work in St. Angela’s mission of affirming women’s dignity.

Sts. Ursula and Angela, pray for us.

St. John Newmann

John Neumann was born in what is now the Czech Republic. When he was 25, John came to New York where he did missionary work. He joined the Redemptorists, a Catholic religious order, and became its first member to profess vows in the United States, continuing his missionary work in Maryland, Virginia and Ohio.

John was next appointed Bishop of Philadelphia. There, he organized the parish school system into a diocese-wide system. The new structure increased the number of students going to the schools almost twentyfold in a short time. St. John drew many teaching communities of sisters as well as the Christian Brothers into the diocesan system to shepherd the huge number of students. John Neumann was the first American bishop to be beatified and was then canonized in 1977. Because of his work in Philadelphia, Catholic dioceses gained a model to organize their resources in support of Catholic education. May he hear the prayers of the Church as our dioceses struggle to keep schools open so we can help people learn.

St. John Newmann, pray for us.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

St. Elizabeth was born into a wealthy New York family in Revolutionary times. She married and had five children with her husband before he fell ill with tuberculosis. They traveled to Italy so he could rest and get better, but he passed away. Elizabeth and her children then moved in with an Italian family who taught them about Catholicism. When they returned to America, they went to Baltimore and joined the Catholic Church, which angered their family friends, who refused to help Elizabeth and her children.

In Baltimore, she met a priest who invited her to open a Catholic school for girls. She accepted and worked alongside other women to get the school started. This group of women began the Sisters of St. Joseph. The bishop approved their community, and Elizabeth became known as Mother Seton, leading the sisters in their education work. Her order grew, and many communities sprung up to further support Catholic education. Mother Seton’s schools formed the foundation for American parish schools, and she was canonized as the first American-born saint.

St. Elizabeth, Mother Seton, pray for us.

Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini

Frances began her career as a school teacher in Italy. One day, a priest invited her to begin a religious order, and in 1880, she formed the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. After gaining the pope’s approval, she asked to begin a mission in China, but the pope sent her to the US instead. He wanted her to serve the many Italian immigrants there.

Frances and her Missionaries went to New York City, home to 50,000 Italian-Americans who struggled to make money and find a welcome, even in the Church. The Missionaries ran schools, hospitals, and orphanages in New York City, and their community began to spread throughout the US and beyond. Mother Cabrini set the example in this country of Catholic schools reaching out to immigrants and marginalized people to give them a home where they can pray and learn.

Mother Cabrini, pray for us.

Mother Theodore Guerin

Mother Guerin is originally from France, where she was born and became a nun in the Sisters of Providence. Her order wanted to start a new community in the United States and sent her to Indiana to be their superior. When she arrived, she noticed there were very few schools in the area and felt that young girls especially needed an educational opportunity. She helped found St. Mary’s-of-the-Woods in Terre Haute, the first Catholic women’s college in the US, at a time when colleges excluded women.

Mother Guerin went on to found schools in Jasper, Vincennes, Montgomery, Madison, Fort Wayne, and Evansville, and even opened pharmacies and hospitals for the poor in Indiana as well. Indiana was still a young territory with great needs, and Mother Guerin laid the foundations for this state to receive Catholic education. Her work helped give new opportunities to countless women and grew the Church in Indiana.

Mother Guerin, pray for us.

St. Ignatius

St. Ignatius was a soldier in the Spanish military. When his leg was shattered by a cannonball during a battle, he took to reading in his hospital bed about Jesus and the saints. After further contemplation on a mountain retreat, Ignatius began studies in Paris to become a priest. He befriended St. Francis Xavier, Blessed Peter Faber, and a few others, who together became the first Jesuits, the priests of the Society of Jesus. They devoted themselves to the pope’s missions, which included missionary work in India and China and educating the Church by starting schools.

500 years later, the Jesuits have become world-famous for their commitment to Catholic education. Their priests have spread their mission of education globally, founding schools,  colleges, and universities in over 30 countries. The Jesuits work in the model of their founder St. Ignatius, who encouraged his friends to find God in all things, through daily prayer that examines how your day went and searches for the high and low points. St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises are the foundation of much of Christian spirituality, and their structure is the basis for the Kairos retreat that is done at Bishop Noll and other schools across the country.

St. Ignatius, pray for us.