Patrons of Catholic Education

January 4 is the Feast Day of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the patroness of Catholic schools and the first American born citizen to become a saint. She came from a well to do family and married a well-to-do gentleman, who died young. After this, she focused on raising their five children. She and two other women started the first free Catholic school in the United States in Maryland in 1809. You can read more about St. Elizabeth Ann Seton here.

And on January 5, we celebrate the feast day of St. John Newman, an naturalized-American bishop of Philadelphia, who founded the first parochial school system. Here is some more information about his life, courtesy as above, from Faith ND,  put out by the University of Notre Dame.


I mention these two great patrons of Catholic education because as the Director of Advancement at St. Mark's School, I spend a lot of time working for Catholic education, even, or especially, during this time of COVID. This is not a job that I would have predicted for myself, though I did volunteer unasked for the position! I was already involved at the school. Our son Luke was a student there and both John and I attended St. Mark's in the 60's & 70's. St. Mark's is John. 

There was/is a big need for an effort to raise funds for the school, outside of tuition and parish support. Money seems to be one of those necessary evils to, in some cases, doing God's will. "Filthy lucre" St. Paul called it. 

The financing of Catholic schools has changed so much since John and I were at St. Mark's and the Sinsinawa Dominicans were teaching practically for free. 

At St. Mark's, all of our teachers are lay and everyone today needs health insurance. Both the costs of insurance and salaries continue to rise, though our staff works for far less money than they could make in the public school system. It's really a form of heroism and a big motivator for me in my work.

Another motivator is the relationships I've made with the staff, families, other volunteers, and donors. We have reunions and auctions. It is always good to see so many St. Mark's friends in person. We raise money for the Fund for St. Mark's School, which helps supplement tuition. Invest in Kids, the tax credit scholarship program started three years ago by the State of Illinois, has helped us raise a lot of money. We formed an Advancement Board.


The thing that kicked off all the advancement activity a few years ago was starting an alumni and friends newsletter. I've interspersed the most recent newsletter appeal throughout this post. Newsletters seem to be a major part of my life. I produce one for Haitian Hearts and I also was involved in newsletters at two of my prior places of employment, Catholic Charities and Security Savings. Haitian Hearts doesn't really have an advancement director, but if it did, I guess it would be me. So money has been another theme in my life. 


It's interesting to look back over your life and see the patterns, see where God has led you, often times unbidden, but always for the better.

"Everyone who breathes. . . has a mission, has a work. We are not sent into this world for nothing; we are not born at random. . . . God sees every one of us; He creates every soul. . . for a purpose. As Christ has His work, we too have ours; as He rejoiced to do His work, we must rejoice in ours also"
                          
                                                                                                                                  St. John Neumann
                          

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and St. John Neumann, pray for us!

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