Throughout this school year, we will feature guest bloggers to share different perspectives on or experiences with boys education on our Head of School blog. Our next guest blogger is Angela Scott, Regis Website Director and Coordinator of Education to Mission, who writes about the legacy of St. Madeleine Sophie Barat.

Annually on May 25, the Catholic Church and Sacred Heart Schools around the world celebrate the life and legacy of St. Madeleine Sophie Barat. Sophie, as she is fondly called, founded the Society of the Sacred Heart in France in 1800. She was committed to “discovering and revealing the Heart of Christ” to others through the mission of education. Sophie is known for her own devotion to cultivating her relationship with God and her great desire to help others deepen their own relationship with a warm, loving, and tender God.*

During Sophie’s lifetime, the Society of the Sacred Heart grew from four religious with one school in France to 3,500 religious with over 100 schools throughout Europe, North America, South America, and Africa. Sophie’s “little Society” continues to have a presence today in 41 countries with over 150 schools—The Regis School of the Sacred Heart counts itself among that number. Founded in 1991, Regis is a relatively new Sacred Heart school, but we share in the rich historic tradition that guides all Sacred Heart schools. What is that foundation? Sophie’s vision for education was for students to have a transformational experience grounded in rigorous academic preparation that was a pathway to further deepening a personal relationship with God.

Sophie wrote over 11,000 letters to other nuns, students, friends, and probably even parents. These letters give us so much insight into what Sophie was thinking and how she lived her life as a religious of the Sacred Heart. At Regis, we lean into the wisdom Sophie shared by living our Sacred Heart Goals. For Sophie, it was essential that we develop a life of prayer or an “interior spirit” so that we can be in good relationship with one another. To her, without having a right relationship with God, it was impossible to have a right relationship with the people with whom she lived in community, who were in the Society with her, with whom she taught or worked. When we think of Goal I which calls us to a personal and active faith in God, we are reminded of Sophie’s desire for us to each have a life of prayer and to develop an “interior spirit.” 

With respect to Goal II, a commitment to intellectual values, Sophie was the Society’s first educator, and she felt that opening the mind through learning was always the key to opening the heart to love more freely—for Sophie, the more someone knew, the greater their ability to love God and others. One of Sophie’s most famous quotes is “Your example, even more than your words, will be an eloquent lesson to the world.”  She invites us to be of service to one another and to help one another and to use that service as a way of showing each other and the world our love which we live out today as Goal III.  

Sophie was a champion of building community as a Christian value, Goal IV. For Sophie, friendship with God could not happen away from other people. She knew that each of us thrives in supportive and encouraging environments, which was her vision for Sacred Heart schools. Goal V speaks to personal growth in an atmosphere of wise freedom. Sophie’s words were always loving and encouraging, but they also remind us that we are accountable to each other. We are always invited to make wise choices, and we can always recover from our mistakes.  "Let us respect childhood; let us honor the soul of that small creature of God who can already make choices of the best if we take the time to awaken their reason and make them use their judgment." 

Sr. Phil Kilroy summarizes Sophie’s vision of education by saying:

For Madeleine Sophie education was never the end. Rather it served as the means for educators and students to come to know and experience God's love. To learn in our school culture means to allow our lives to be shaped by an active faith. Ours is a sacred imperative to educate the whole child and through the dynamic of this education, we and the students come to experience being loved by and loving God. Sophie hoped that education within her schools would be profound enough to inspire people to rebuild, renew and transform society, wherever they lived. As her intuition matured, developed, and expanded, she came to see education as the means and the way to renew society. (Phil Kilroy, Madeleine Sophie Barat, a Life)

Sophie’s love of God was revealed in her actions, and at Regis, we are privileged to be the legacy of a woman of such great faith. She chose each day to live life with an open heart and to see the goodness in others. Her approach to her vocation was to be loving in each and every moment and to find ways that she could deepen and nurture her relationships with others so that she could in turn deepen her relationship with God. We are blessed to have her as a role model and to have the wisdom of her vision written down in the Goals and Criteria to use to guide us.

Happy Feast Day Madeleine Sophie! 

*For more info on St. Madeleine Sophie, see the definitive biography of her life by Sr. Phil Kilroy.
 

Angela serves as Website Director and as a pivotal part in Regis' Formation to Mission Committee. She holds an M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction and a Science Specialist Certificate from Louisiana State University. A member of the Sacred Heart community since childhood, Angela is a graduate of the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau. She is also a proud Regis Alumni Parent of Mark, Class of 2018. She has been part of the Regis community since 2008, as both a parent and classroom educator.