January 9--Bl. Alix Le Clerc, Religious

 

Hermann Weyen Scan Furmeyer 27 jun 2008, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Who deserves to be educated? In our society we would say everyone deserves an education, but in the time of Bl. Alix Le Clerc, only young men with money could afford an education. So she set out to serve and educate young women by founding the Congregation of Notre Dame with St. Peter Fourier, her pastor. On Christmas Day, 1597, she and four other women took private vows for their association because women's religious orders were normally cloistered, or enclosed, in convents. She was foundress of what we would call the first religious order of sisters, rather than nuns, because they worked in the world. The next July they started their first free school for young women in Nancy, France. Their goal was to provide free education to any girl, poor or wealthy, Protestant or Catholic. "Both believed that education would empower people, especially the girls who would grow up to become mothers in families. An education containing religious instruction would then benefit the entire family and strengthen faith in the family and society."

The Sisters of Notre Dame founded schools for girls in 43 countries, including the United States in Omaha, Nebraska, where they founded Notre Dame Academy in 1926. In 1974 it merged with Rummel High School to form Roncalli Catholic High School where its legacy of "Help all and harm none," the motto of St. Peter Fourier, and "Do the most good," the model of Bl. Alix, continue to this day.

Catholic education, whether it has been through all-boys schools, all-girls schools, co-ed schools, private schools, parochial schools, or diocesan schools, has greatly benefited society. Over 1.6 million students are educated in U.S. Catholic schools in over 5,900 schools. We need to remember and be grateful for the men and women who had the vision to found Catholic schools, like Bl. Alix Le Clerc.