Catholic Education

Today the Church remembers St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first native born American Saint. Her life and her legacy have much to say to Catholic educators as do her spirituality, determination and contribution to the life of the Church, particularly in America. Struggle, faith, and confidence in God mark her life from the time of her marriage to William Seton in 1794. The loss of his merchant fleet ruined the family financially, and his battle with tuberculosis ending in death, left Elizabeth a widow with five children. Her conversion to Catholicism alienated her from her wealthy Episcoplian family, thus leaving her further impoverished. She was forced to open a small, but instantly successful school in New York. Forced out because of religous bigotry, she settled in Maryland, where Catholics were the majority, and soon caught the eye of Bishop John Carroll, who asked her to open a Catholic boarding school for girls, which she did. The next year he invited her to begin a religious community, which became the Sisters of Charity of Emmitsburg, Maryland. After overcoming hardship after hardship, including the death of two of her daughters to tuberculosis, she succeeded in laying the foundation of the Catholic School system in the United States. She herself died at the early age of 46 from tuberculosis; one of her grandsons became an Archbishop.
Though of a different nature, St. Marcellin was no stranger to struggle, faith and confidence in God, and especially in Mary our Good Mother, as he established his young community of teaching brothers. A passage from the writings of St. Elizabeth echoes the faith and attitude of St. Marcellin, and serves as a reminder to Catholic teachers, of what our mission is: "To love him [God] with the whole heart is all, also we must include our whole strength by doing all that we can for him, and referring to him whatever we do for others, and with our whole mind by remembering him continually and filling it with him as much as we can. Love is paid by love--and the tenderest mother has not more delight in holding her little dear beloved in her arms than this child of divine love (the happy soul he dwells in) delights to dwell in the bosom of his best and dearest of fathers." "To educate is to love." "I cannot look at children without wanting to tell them how much God loves them." --St. Marcellin. With these two loving saints as models, we pursue our call to Catholic Education with faith and determination and love, undaunted by our daily struggles.
Bro. Rene