By Jay Sorgi<\/p>\n
(serie 50 por 50)<\/em>\u00a0 Fifty years ago, Catholic school foundress Anne Carroll had a nonprofit status, two teachers, including herself, a rented space in an Episcopal church, 16 students, and very little money.<\/p>\n \u201cI had talked to a priest about my plans and he said we\u2019d need hundreds of thousands of dollars. We had $300, and I decided, ‘That’s close enough,’\u201d she said recently through laughter.<\/p>\n But Carroll had something in common with Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton \u2014 a deep faith in God. She named Seton School in Manassas, Virginia, after her. There were more than a few similarities between Carroll\u2019s mission and that of Mother Seton in establishing the first order of religious sisters in the U.S. and one of the first Catholic schools for girls in the U.S. in 1809.<\/p>\n \u201cHer facilities were primitive,\u201d Carroll said. \u201cI remember reading a story about how when she had a little boarding school, and the nuns and students would sleep upstairs and snow would sift through the roof, and they’d wake up in the morning with snow on them.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the buildings we were in early, if it rained hard, for the students in one particular classroom, water would come through and drip all over them.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, Seton School is a thriving junior and senior high school of 350 students, and Carroll, whose late husband, Warren, founded Christendom College, remains an active teacher, even after her tenure as Director ended. It could be said that both Mother Seton and Carroll pulled off a miracle \u2014 all in the service of teaching and serving the youth of their times.<\/p>\n The school and Mother Seton also share an important anniversary. It was 50 years ago this September that the school opened and its namesake was canonized as the first native-born American saint. Students and teachers recently made their annual pilgrimage to the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where the saint lived, worshiped, and sent forth both her students and her religious sisters to serve God in the world. Seton\u2019s tomb in the Shrine\u2019s Basilica remains a place of deep devotion to pilgrims from around the world.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was an inspiration, her total trust in God, the crosses she had to carry, and just everything about her inspired me,\u201d said Carroll.\u00a0 \u201cI was just drawn to her as a wife and a mother, and a foundress who overcame obstacles that would have deterred so many other kinds of people.\u201d<\/p>\n Carroll’s devotion to the Lord through Mother Seton continues to be infused into the journey of this landmark American saint. The front page of the school\u2019s website has this quote from Mother Seton: \u201cLet His Will of the present moment be the first rule of our daily life and work.\u201d Carroll also includes it within the novena that she and others at the school offer to the saint every year.<\/p>\n Just as Mother Seton had to sacrifice in her journey \u2014 from being a socialite to a wife, mother, widow, and then a Catholic convert and outcast \u2014 to finding her vocation in rural Maryland, the story of Seton School has also been one of sacrifice, Carroll said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe teachers, the parents, the students, they had to sacrifice not having all the fancy things that other schools have,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Carroll also shared how the example of Mother Seton led her to model a deep sense of meeting her students and their families where they are due to their background or economic status.<\/p>\n \u201cMother Seton took the children from the neighborhood in, and if they couldn’t pay, then that was okay; she would still take them in,\u201d Carroll said. \u201cWe have never yet turned someone away just because of that inability to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know she took in students of all races, of different economic levels, of different religions, and we have been open too, as long as they’re willing to cooperate with our Catholic mission.\u201d<\/p>\n Rob Judge, executive director of the Seton Shrine, said he marvels at the pioneering spirit of both Mother Seton and Carroll.<\/p>\n \u201cThey both started with a love of Christ and a vision to serve, and they both had the courage and spirit to embark on their missions of faith, love and service, believing in God’s providence, that He has a plan, and that He would be there to help,\u201d he said. \u201cJust as Mother Seton continues to touch so many people, the fruits of Anne\u2019s work over these past 50 years can be found in the countless lives she has influenced through Seton School.\u201d<\/p>\n The school outwardly proclaims that mission<\/a>, in part, as \u201cto deepen the students\u2019 relationship with the person who is Jesus Christ, so they might faithfully follow His teachings and discover their vocation within His Church, (teaching) orthodox, traditional Catholicism in complete harmony with the Magisterium of the Catholic Church as taught by the Holy Father.\u201d<\/p>\n That mission might not have become reality without a series of miraculous moments that displayed God’s providence in the process.<\/p>\n The first came when the fire marshal showed up to the school\u2019s first rented building and said that he could close the school down then and there.\u00a0 Instead, he ordered that a series of things be done in order to get an occupancy permit. The parents and students then pitched in to clean out the building, and the school got its permit.<\/p>\n One miracle down, with more on the way. A whole bunch more were coming \u2014 whether it was finding the money to expand, hiring Bob Pennefather as the school director on the eve of the Covid-19 pandemic, or forging a group of alumni, parents, and board members to design and build a new chapel.<\/p>\n “God took care of it,\u201d she said. \u201cHe’s always taking care of it.”<\/p>\n Today, Carroll sees how the mission of the school, and the miracles that launched it, have borne fruit in the alumni whose lives are a living testament to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s legacy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe went to a nearby parish for the Easter Vigil, and six graduates of the Class of 2024 came over. I said, ‘Wow, a class reunion.’ One of them said, ‘We’re here because a really good friend of ours was baptized tonight, received into the Church,’\u201d said Carroll.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of those young men was instrumental in his conversion, and the rest of them had befriended him…just their attitude, their Catholicism was in their soul. It brought tears to my eyes. Praise God.\u201d<\/p>\n She led a community from the school on a yearly pilgrimage to the Seton Shrine in early May, a pilgrimage she has taken for decades, offering a novena beforehand and nine days of thanksgiving after the pilgrimage.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s her 50th anniversary of canonization, and it’s our 50th anniversary, and these are miracles,\u201d Carroll said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe started with nothing. But God somehow uses instruments that are the weak things of the world. He uses those. And then, you know it’s God’s doing. He did it. Blessings without number.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the story of Seton School. Blessings without number, mercies without end.\u201d<\/p>\n Information about Seton School can be found here: https:\/\/setonschool.net\/<\/a><\/p>\n\u2018Total trust in God\u2019<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Leaving nobody out<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\u2018These are miracles\u2019<\/strong><\/h4>\n